The Xenosoul Threat
by Flaresi
Summary: After Grima had been slain, the famed tactician Hale returns with a hazy vision of people everyone once thought dead returning to the world. What does it mean in a world that's trying to rebuild after multiple conflicts? Perhaps the Outrealm Gate is more trouble than it's worth...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: It's been a while since I've done a fan fic, but I feel like I'm ready to try my hand at it once again. The character interactions and classes are based off of my first Awakening playthrough, and the pairings that I've chosen will become evident as the story progresses. For now, enjoy its beginning.**

* * *

"Just who are you, really?" A young, red-haired tactician asked herself as she stood in front of a mirror. It had been a few months since Grima was defeated at the hands of her own father, Hale – in turn sacrificing his own life so that the Fell Dragon would never return again. Supposedly, if his bond with everyone was strong enough, he would eventually return. That's what Naga had said. Morgan had been among the first to gather a search party for her father, alongside a few others that could spare their time amongst the rebuilding of the world's various nations. So far, they hadn't found any trace of him; no one could recall having seen or heard from the short, black-haired tactician anywhere.

"Your father gave _his_ life to make sure _you_ would have one. What are _you_ going to do for the world, Morgan?" She asked the mirror. Countless times, she had asked herself that in her head, and could never come up with an acceptable answer. What would be a suitable destiny for the daughter of the man who _killed Grima?_ How could she possibly live up to that? As if she could hope to do as much for anyone…

"I understand that Hale's sacrifice weighs heavily on you, Morgan, but ruminating over such comparisons is highly unlikely to produce any sort of positive revelation." Morgan gasped and turned around to see her mother, Miriel, standing at the entry to the tent. At least it hadn't been someone else, which would've raised even more questions.

"Both of us have a justification for being particularly affected by it. However, you must remember that neither you nor I are the same person as he. Whatever purpose we serve cannot be the same as his. I also harbor a lingering conviction that if he was here to see either of us thinking like that, he would assure us that we do not need to have such a large impact on world affairs in order to have worth as a person." She smiled slightly and walked towards Morgan, who looked back at the mirror and shook her head. Morgan sat down on the nearby bed and let out a heavy sigh.

"I don't know what to do without him, Mother. Don't get me wrong, I love that we've gotten closer in the time we've spent together, but… he's the only memory I have from before I came to this time. I'm not ready to let him go again just yet. I still want to try and beat him in a game of strategy. He said he was going to show me what I could learn by using a Second Seal, and I was going to ask him all about how you two got married. Things like that." The tent flap opened again, revealing a black-haired mage.

"We are getting ready to move out once more. Mother, Morgan, I would suggest finishing your discussion soon." Laurent closed the tent flap and left. Miriel lay a hand on her daughter's shoulder, giving her a reassuring shake.

"I want to find him as much as you do. You should not preoccupy yourself with these kinds of thoughts again. I believe he is strong enough to return to us; we only need to continue searching." Morgan nodded and cracked a smile. She knew that much was true. They would find her father, no matter how long it took.

He had mysteriously appeared unconsciously laying in a field in southern Ylisse. According to Chrom, that was where Hale had first been found. They had already searched Regna Ferox, Plegia, and the rest of Ylisse; if they didn't find him here, they would have to start searching the entire Valmese continent. Their friends in Valm hadn't heard or seen any sign of him, but would continue to look out for him as everyone else did.

Morgan and Laurent were paired up together as they rode across the southern plains. She had learned to ride a horse around the same time she learned how to wield a sword, bolstered by the power of a Master Seal. Laurent had chosen to further augment his magical prowess, picking up healing staves with the Master Seal's boost.

"This is such a pretty place. I wonder how Father ended up here." She had been trying to fill the silence for the past hour, but her brother wasn't being very responsive. He had entered this time years before the other future children, and so was substantially older than Morgan. From what she could remember Hale telling her, he and Laurent had some trouble getting along at first since he was about the same age as his father. He didn't like being treated as a child.

"I do not know, Morgan. When we find him, perhaps you can ask. However, I don't think even he remembers exactly why it was in southern Ylisse he was found, and not someplace else. You must remember that Father's memory still had gaps in it. We may never find out all the details of his past." That was the most Laurent had said the entire ride. She guided her horse down a small slope and noticed Chrom and Lissa standing in the distance – alongside a third figure with short black hair.

"Laurent? We didn't bring anybody else with black hair, did we?" Morgan's heart skipped a beat. From this distance, it was hard to tell, but… could it be?

"Not down here, no. Why do you ask?" Morgan guided her horse to gallop over there as soon as possible. Had they done it? Had they really found him? Had her father returned after all this time?

"…funny that we should find you here, Hale. Your family was about to start searching Valm for you, and now here you stand." Chrom spoke, smiling at a man wearing the same robes Morgan wore.

"And look! Grima's mark! It's gone!" Lissa pointed at his hand, which once bore the mark of the Fell Dragon. When she got close enough, Morgan leapt off of her horse and ran towards her father.

"Father! It's you! You've finally returned!" He turned around and was greeted by his daughter squeezing him in the tightest grip he'd ever been in – and this was considering Basilio once decided to hug him right before the final battle. He also noticed Laurent dismounting with a warm smile of his own, though he clearly wasn't as ecstatic as Morgan to see him again.

"It's good… to see you too…! But you're kind of… crushing me!" Hale said to her. She giggled and looked him in the eye, tears of joy beginning to run down her face.

"I'm sorry! But… I just missed you so much. And Naga was right. We all were right. We knew you'd come back!" Hale wiped the tears from her face and returned her embrace.

"Indeed, Father. Today is a joyous occasion. I can't wait to see Mother's reaction to you." Laurent said. Hale approached him and gave him a hug; the only other time they had been that close was right before the final battle, and at that time, Laurent was not sure that he would ever be able to do that again. His smile broke into a grin as he tightened his grip on his father, surprising himself with the display of emotion.

"I've missed you too. It's so good to have you back with us." Laurent said.

"It's great to be here with both of you again. Perhaps now we can live together as a family." Hale let go of Laurent and turned to Chrom.

"Approximately how long have I been gone? Has anything important happened in that time?" He asked the Ylissean ruler.

"About three months. Most of the Shepherds have opted to return to their homes to try and rebuild their communities. We've had a few problems with bandits attacking some of the outlying villages, but nothing resembling the wars we've had to fight. It's been going very well, for the most part."

"Yeah, people have really gotten behind Chrom now! He's doing really good leading Ylisse." Lissa added. Hale considered the information and thought for a moment.

"Chrom. Has anything or anyone new emerged from the Outrealm Gate lately?"

"Not that I know of. Why do you ask?" Hale turned around and looked towards the south. Ever since he had seen it open over the Ylissean plains, dispensing Risen and a disguised Lucina, it had relegated itself to a smaller portal near the southern coastline. The Shepherds had ventured into it a few times, exploring the transdimensional worlds known as the Outrealms. Those who were there all remembered Old Hubba, the strange geezer responsible for guarding the Einherjar, card-sealed spirits which were modeled after legendary warriors from other realms. Why a man such as he was entrusted with them, no one knew. However, saving him multiple times had convinced him to give Hale a few of the Einherjar cards. He'd never really called upon their help in battle, though.

"I remember something from before I came back. It's very blurry, as if it had happened in a dream. The Outrealm Gate brought back people we had originally thought dead. I can't remember who they were, but they appeared all over the world. I believe they had come from timelines in which they had survived, for some reason or another." Chrom considered Hale's words and immediately asked the question that had popped into everyone's minds:

"You don't believe you're one of these people, are you?" Hale raised his eyebrows. He hadn't considered that possibility.

"I don't think so. My dream ended with a warm light inviting me towards it. I assume that was Naga calling me back to the land of the living. But I wouldn't worry too much about what I saw, Chrom. I don't remember any of these people being hostile, whoever they were. Come on. We should go back to Ylisstol and tell everyone I've returned."

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**A/N: Morgan is a Dark Knight, and Laurent is a Sage. Miriel is also a Sage, while Chrom is a Great Lord and Lissa a War Cleric. Hale is a Grandmaster. Some of them won't stay at their current classes, though. Let me know what you think. I'll try to have an update out in the next few days.  
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	2. Chapter 2

"_That's incredible! Where did you learn that technique, Morgan?" Hale exclaimed as the enemy disintegrated in his daughter's magic blast. She looked at her hands, which were still giving off black smoke. She shook her head and put away the tome she had been using._

"_I… don't know, Father. That just happened. I didn't intend on using any special moves." She looked at him, where his hand once bore the mark of Grima. _

"_We have to see if you can do that again. Look! There's another cluster of enemies. Let's get in position." The two moved through the trees and got behind the enemy's archers, who were paying attention to the night skies for any roaming fliers. _

"_How am I supposed to do that again? I didn't even know how I did it the first time." Morgan whispered, already working out how the two of them would split up the enemy forces._

"_Just use your magic as normal. You remember how we're going to engage?" _

"_Yes. Are you ready?"_

"_On my mark." Hale waited a few seconds, carefully reading the strengths of the enemies before him. A few archers, a few axe-wielders, and a single myrmidon. The men holding axes were bulky, slow. Very easy to dodge their attacks. The myrmidon almost seemed bored, and was the farthest away from them. He would probably be last._

"_Go!" Hale fired a burst of Thoron, the lightning spear piercing the archer directly in front of him, the attack's extended range zapping the one behind him as well. Morgan jumped from the trees and unleashed Bolganone's wide-reaching fury on the axe-wielders, catching most of them in its flame. The once-bored myrmidon was now shaking in fear as he saw his comrades decimated in seconds by the two mages, and was considering just running away. The other archers attempted to retaliate, but were quickly killed by Hale's blade. The last axe-wielder screamed in rage as he whirled his axe around in a dash towards Morgan, but she easily dodged the unwieldy attack and beheaded him with her own sword. _

"_What did I do to deserve this?" The myrmidon uttered as the two tacticians advanced on him. Noticing that he had yet to attack despite having an ample opening, Hale halted and began to speak._

"_Do you wish to surrender? Or are you just hoping that we'll let our guard down as a result of this gambit of yours?" He asked the swordsman, who looked at Morgan charging up another spell. The myrmidon, still shaking, sighed and unsheathed his sword._

"_No! I won't let you trick us!" Suddenly, the fireball Morgan was holding became imbued with a black, smoky aura, which was then launched at the myrmidon as he dropped his sword on the ground. The dark fireball made contact with him and instantly disintegrated him and the sword, Bolganone's lava-like ripples giving off the same smoke as the spell dissipated. _

"_Morgan! What have you done?" Hale shouted, noticing that his daughter's hands were giving off that black smoke from before. Realizing that she had killed a surrendering opponent, she started shaking and fell to her knees, unable to turn her eyes away from the pile of black dust she had just turned the swordsman into. She hadn't meant to do it. She was only charging the spell to intimidate him, and yet… she let it go. _

"_I didn't want to do that! Father, you have to believe me! That was an accident!" She shouted, beginning to cry. Hale looked around and noticed that the shadows from the trees were converging on the two of them, making everything darker, blurrier. Morgan seemed paralyzed, not even moving as the shadows enveloped her. Hale couldn't move either, forced to stay still as the darkness overtook the both of them…_

* * *

…giving way to the ceiling of his bedroom in Chrom's palace. He took several heavy breaths, looking at the window indicating that it was sunrise. He laid his head back down on the bed, trying to remember what had just happened. Morgan utilizing some form of dark magic and accidentally killing an enemy who was in the middle of surrendering. Neither Hale nor Miriel had ever dabbled in dark magic before, but perhaps Morgan had the Shadowgift, the ability to use dark magic without any prior training. If that was true, then why didn't Laurent also have it?

"Wait, what am I doing? It wasn't real. Just a bad dream." Hale shook his head and got out of bed, heading to the palace's dining area to have breakfast. When he got there, he immediately saw Vaike at one of the tables getting up to meet him. Aside from Stahl, who was too engrossed in eating his food to notice Hale come in, he was the only one there.

"Hey, look who decided to join Teach for an early morning breakfast? C'mon, Hale, go get something and we'll have a chat. Stahl! Check out who decided to get up at the crack of dawn." The cavalier looked up with a bunch of food in his mouth and waved as Hale went to get something. He sat down across from Vaike, who was consuming a sausage link.

"Mm. You don't look so good. Didn't sleep well?" He asked. Hale blinked and took a bite out of his food. That was the first dream he could remember having since he came back to Ylisse, and it wasn't a particularly good one. Compared to the one he had about people returning through the Outrealm Gate, this dream was far clearer.

"Not as well as I would have hoped." He didn't feel like recounting the dream to anybody. Hopefully, he would avoid having to mention it to Morgan. She probably wouldn't be up this early if she could help it – she had inherited her father's tendency to stay up late into the night working on new strategies and reading books, which meant she slept in quite often now that there was no longer a war to fight.

"Aw, that's no good. Well, nothing a little food can't fix up! Dig in, Hale. I hear Chrom wants to go and drive a few bandits out of the country today, so we're gonna need that energy. You know Stahl here is just raring to go. Right?" Vaike elbowed Stahl, who chuckled and looked at his now-empty plate.

"Actually, I just came down here so I could get some fresh food. I'm really supposed to be training some new recruits along with Sully later this morning. You'll have to deal with the bandits without me!" He got up from the table, intent on getting more food. Vaike turned around and noticed he was getting an entire plate's worth of stuff.

"That guy eats like a horse. Hey, Stahl! Leave some for everybody else, huh?" Stahl came back to the table.

"Don't worry. This'll be enough for me." Hale watched Stahl and Vaike have a conversation about their eating habits. He needed an opportunity to do something outside of Ylisstol, and Chrom's bandit-purging mission sounded like just the thing. Perhaps he'd let Morgan take command over their movements this time. She had never gotten the chance to do so before, though they had discussed the possibility before Grima's death. There was also a Second Seal he wanted to utilize, too…

"We'd be honored to have you lead us, Morgan. If Hale thinks you are ready to guide an army, then so do I." Chrom said to Morgan as the force of Shepherds began to move towards the southwestern edge of Ylisse. Each one had become far stronger in battle since Hale first joined them: Maribelle no longer needed an escort as she was now capable of fighting with magic, Sumia could now heal allies while flying on her pegasus, Miriel was now proficient in the use of staves with Laurent following in her footsteps, and Ricken actually got taller.

"Don't forget about me. I've been practicing how to fight with an axe." Kellam spoke from beside Chrom, wearing the heaviest, bulkiest armor out of the entire group.

"Oh. There you are, Kellam. I was beginning to wonder if you had stayed behind to help Stahl and Sully train the new recruits." Chrom turned to acknowledge the knight. He sighed and took his place at the front of the formation. He had only been there the _entire time_, like always – and yet people hardly noticed him, even in a general's huge armor. Perhaps acting as a human shield for the others would alleviate that, he thought.

"No, you wanted me to come with you."

"I see. Well, Morgan will be directing us this time around."

"You said that Lucina and Kjelle are currently on a sightseeing tour, right?" Hale asked Chrom. Both of his daughters had inherited their parents' proficiency in combat; the two of them together could take on nearly any enemy that came at them. No one was truly worried for their safety.

"That's right. Last I heard from Lucina, they were about to visit Tiki. She had said she wanted to learn more about Marth, about what the world was like thousands of years ago." It would have been nice to have them help with this bandit problem, Hale thought, but the array of Shepherds they currently had should suffice.

After riding for about an hour, the Shepherds came to a fortified mountain base near the borders of Ylisse. Pegasus knights patrolled the skies, with archers and mages watching from the forts' ramparts. Doubtless there were plenty of warriors waiting inside as well. To add to the fort's defense was a moat, except in the place of water were hundreds of thorny bushes – unable to immediately kill those that fell in, but would cause a painful death for someone unable to get out of them.

"Our scouts have reported that there doesn't seem to be any shortcuts we could take to get in, with there only being two entrances from the front or back across drawbridges. Every angle of the fort is equally defended. Whoever is commanding these forces must know a thing or two about strategic defense. What are you planning, Morgan?" Chrom asked the young tactician. She took the information the scouts had given her and drew up a map of the outside of the fort, marking all the enemies' positions on it. There were only two entrances the Shepherds could reasonably use, those being the two drawbridges that the enemy hadn't raised yet, as they weren't expecting an attack at that moment.

"If they'd raised those drawbridges, we'd have a much harder time getting in there. Okay, we'll do this. Let's split in two groups. Sumia, Cordelia, you two will stay on the borders of the fortress and make sure reinforcements don't show up. Chrom, you'll take half our forces and storm the back entrance, while Kellam will lead our frontal assault. I'll go with Kellam's half, and Father will accompany Chrom's half. Kellam, you'll have Lissa, Miriel, and Vaike along with me. Chrom, that means you'll have Maribelle, Laurent, and Ricken alongside Father. We'll have to defeat every enemy we come across; I don't think these are the types that'll just surrender. Is that clear?" Morgan spoke to the army, who all gave affirmations indicating they understood. She did a quick head count to make sure everyone was present, but noticed someone important was missing…

"Father? Where is he?"

"I'm right here. I just needed to change real quickly before we started." Morgan turned around to notice Hale wearing a completely different outfit than before: gone were his iconic Plegian robes, which were replaced with a tight-fitting blue-and-yellow… thing that she'd seen the various Annas wear, but with a red-and-yellow scheme instead. She broke out into a grin, which fell into laughter at how silly it looked on him.

"Aw, come on! This is supposed to help me move around faster. I'm already starting to understand how to use healing staves. I bet I can learn how to pick locks much more quickly thanks to the Second Seal." The blue Seals, rather than augmenting existing power, redirected the user's abilities towards other specialties. Now that the Anna that had accompanied them returned to her traveling business, they no longer had someone capable of opening doors and chests without a key – at least, not since Gaius had gotten a legitimate job running his own candy shop in Ylisstol. Hale had enjoyed having someone with those capabilities in the army, and now he could be that person.

"Okay, okay. But I don't see how you're going to be able to sneak around wearing _that!_" She chuckled.

"I still need the hat, though." Hale mumbled to himself; perhaps Morgan wouldn't think the outfit as silly with it. That hat was very stylish.

"Alright! Everyone's here, then. Are we all ready to go?" The Shepherds all responded that they were.

"You know what to do! Let's drive these bandits out of Ylisse!"

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**A/N: Ricken actually rides a horse as a Dark Knight, like Morgan. So while he typically has a higher view than most of the Shepherds, he still complains about his height. I imagine that he'd probably be as tall as Chrom when fully grown. But enough about him. Hale is now a Trickster; but whereas the game completely strips him of his ability to use offensive magic, he'll keep it in this story. Anyone else who uses a Second Seal to re-class themselves will also keep any weapon/staff proficiencies they would've lost, except nerfed a little bit (Hale's A-level magic is now B, for example). ****The next update, like the last one, will be up in a few days.** Let me know what you think!  



	3. Chapter 3

"This isn't even that hard!" Ricken exclaimed with a smile as he sent a blast of Arcwind at one of the archers on the ramparts, breaking his neck as he landed on the ground inside the fort. The assault on the bandits' fortress had gone very well so far – despite their decent strategic formation, the bandits themselves weren't very strong. This meant that Hale didn't have to worry about arranging people too much, since brute forcing their way through enemies would save time and didn't pose a significant risk. He imagined Morgan would do the same, assuming her end was as weak as this one.

"Indeed. This hardly merited my coming all the way out here." Maribelle said as she directed Arcfire at two swordsmen coming at her, both of which fell immediately after being struck. From behind her, a mage commanded a bolt of Elthunder to strike her on the head; she chuckled as she noticed the air around her charging and whispered a few words to redirect the electricity into the ground. She turned her mount around and narrowed her eyes at the mage, whose eyes widened as he saw that his attack did nothing.

"Are you _trying_ to make my hair stand on end? Let's see how you like it!" She took out her Arcthunder tome and called down three bolts of electricity on the enemy mage, which all connected and put him out of commission.

"Come on! We need to keep moving forward!" Hale called from the front, where Chrom and Laurent had finished taking down the array of soldiers in the corridor. Ricken and Maribelle directed their horses to follow.

"Hey, Maribelle. I've been thinking about what you said to me before. About… having pride in my family name despite our financial difficulties. It's not just about having the name of a noble; it's about having the attitude!" He paused for a moment.

She had deflected a magic attack without even looking – and was repeatedly shown in training sessions back home that she had the highest resistance to magic damage out of anyone. She knew exactly what to say to a fussy noble, and always conducted herself with the knowledge that she was valuable no matter what anyone said. Their tea times had slowly convinced him that they ought to be something more than good friends, but did _she_ feel the same way?

"Ricken? Lost in thought again, dear?" He blinked and noticed that they both had stopped at the end of the corridor, where Hale was considering what to do at one of the fort's inner junctions. He blushed and turned away from Maribelle.

"Um, I guess. Actually, after this is over, when we get back home… we need to talk. It's really, really important." Maribelle raised an eyebrow.

"If you say so. Come. It looks like Hale has decided what we should do next." The tactician had decided that splitting up the army further was fine, as long as a healer was in each party. Hale would accompany Ricken and Maribelle, and Laurent and Chrom would travel together. Ricken had secretly bought a ring a few days ago, the same day he had verified that he had, in fact, grown significantly taller. It had his family crest on it and everything. It had completely depleted his personal savings, but he felt it was worth it. Hopefully, it would be.

* * *

"Seriously, which one of these losers thought it would be a good idea to mess with the people of Ylisse?" Vaike asked as he kicked over the body of one of the soldiers he had just chopped into pieces.

"Yeah, you would think they'd have heard about all the people we beat and just surrender." Lissa commented. She hadn't needed to use her healing staff at all throughout the mission – even Vaike, who normally took a few minor wounds from fighting aggressively, didn't need any healing. When Hale decided he was ready to get stronger with a Master Seal, he had asked the tactician what options he had. He refused the option of learning how to use a bow, insisting that focusing on fighting with an axe would eventually make him the best axe-wielder in history. That had culminated in demanding a duel with Basilio after Grima was killed, but he had never gotten around to arranging it.

"There's always someone who thinks they can get away with it. But no one crosses what my father cares about. I've noticed they don't usually live to tell the tale." Morgan added, keeping the formation behind Kellam as she guided him through the fort's corridors. The bandits had put up their best fight, but they were clearly no match for the Shepherds. Even Lissa, who had learned how to use axes as a means of self-defense rather than offense, could take them down without too much trouble.

"Look at that door." Kellam pointed with his free hand towards one of the wooden doors that lined the corridor. The rest of them had been opened to make sure reinforcements or prisoners weren't inside, but this particular door had not only been opened, it had been blown off its hinges and was laying on the floor, shards of it scattered about.

"You don't suppose Father's forces have already been here, have they? Maybe they encountered some hidden enemy that tried to surprise them by throwing the door open at them." Morgan suggested. Kellam approached the opening where the door had been and immediately jumped back, a flaming arrow whizzing by his helmet and breaking apart against the wall.

"That is most unusual. Where would an enemy procure the materials to launch ignited ammunition around here?" Miriel said.

"I don't know, but Vaike, come with me. Lissa, Miriel, you watch our backs as we enter, in case we need any healing. Kellam, um… make sure nobody else comes." The door was only wide enough to let one person through at a time, but if Vaike threw an axe inside, the enemy would have to get out of its way long enough for two people to get in.

"Vaike, throw one of your hand axes into the room. Then we'll run inside and take down the enemy." He nodded and heaved a throwing axe into the room, the axe bouncing off the wall as they ran inside.

"Uh, Morgan… I think we're in trouble." Vaike muttered nervously as he noticed the same thing Morgan did: three archers with flaming arrows pointed at them. These weren't the same archers that they had killed with impunity earlier, either: each one looked experienced and wielded a type of bow that allowed for two shots at once, called a Brave Bow due to how difficult it was to use. The other Shepherds could only see Morgan giving them a look warning them not to enter, and tensed as they saw the room light up from the arrows.

"Who are you? You're not the bandits that have been occupying this place." A young woman's voice barked from behind the left side of the archers. Morgan tried to get her mind off of the fact that these archers, most likely snipers as their flaming-arrow-loaded Brave Bows indicated, could skewer her six ways to the grave in the blink of an eye. She took a deep breath and looked towards the source of the voice. The woman had black hair, and looked about as old as Chrom did. She herself wielded a Brave Bow, though her arrows weren't on fire. She seemed to be about as tall as Hale.

"Answer me, or you will regret having intruded here!"

"Okay. No, we aren't bandits. We're part of Chrom's Shepherds, Ylisse's protection force. We came here to drive a group of bandits away from the country. You don't look like one, and neither do your friends. We don't have to fight each other." She spoke curtly, quickly, as her father had told her. Don't be vague, and stick to the point. Stay calm. Don't give the other party a reason to be distrustful of you.

"Hmph. Then it was your group responsible for all the racket outside. We had been waiting for an opportunity to escape. Stand down, then." The young woman lowered her bow and snapped her fingers. Suddenly, the three snipers that had been taking aim at Vaike and Morgan evaporated into thin air, leaving behind the young woman and another figure that had been slumping against the wall, crying.

"What was that? How did you do that?" Vaike asked, sweeping his free hand where the snipers had been. The young woman opened her cloak to reveal an unusual rose-colored tome.

"I'm an illusionist. This one… has the gift of seeing through illusions." She reached down to gently shake the shoulder of the crying figure.

"It's okay. They're not here to hurt us. You can get up now." The figure wiped her tears and took the young woman's hand, standing up and revealing that she had the exact same face. Twins, Morgan thought – except the one with the bow and the tome looked to be at least six or seven years older. Lissa and Miriel walked in, noticing that the situation had defused.

"I'm Mina. She is… also Mina. It's a long story. But I can explain that to you later. First, we need to get out of here." The older Mina took the younger's hand and made for the door.

"You'll have to excuse her. She's been through a lot lately, and won't speak or make contact with anyone other than me. We'll follow you until you've gotten rid of all the bandits. And you all are?" Vaike was the first to introduce himself, grinning and waving at the two Minas.

"Name's Vaike! Good to see you're on our side, at least for the time being."

"I'm Chrom's sister, Lissa. If either of you need any healing, just let me know."

"I am Miriel. I believe I have heard of illusion being a type of learned magic, but you are the first illusionist I have personally seen. If necessary, I am also capable of healing your wounds, though I would defer to Lissa as she has more experience with it than I."

"My name is Morgan. Perhaps you've heard of my father, Hale? He's been Ylisse's tactician for over two years now, and has led its army to victory over Plegia, Valm, and even Grima himself." The older Mina looked at her younger self, whose eyes had been glued to Morgan ever since she stood up. They whispered to each other for a moment.

"Not quite. We're not… from your world. But we do know of _you, _Morgan. Listen, this isn't the time to talk about it. We should go and get rid of the bandits first." Mina walked out of the room with her younger self.

"I'm Kellam. I've been standing guard out here for the past few minutes." The knight said as the illusionist came out. The rest of the Shepherds followed, and Morgan decided to put the Minas alongside Lissa in the middle of the formation as they continued through the fort.

"Good. I don't think the enemies around here would want to break their weapons on your armor." Mina commented. The younger Mina leaned in and whispered something to her, which prompted the older one to speak up.

"The younger me says that we should call her Jasmine. I don't know if your world has this as a custom, but people in mine are typically given multiple names when they're born. We were both named Mina Jasmine. That should clear up any confusion as to who you're referring to."

"We're more familiar with this kind of scenario than you think. I'm actually from the future of this timeline, but we can talk about that later. Look! There are more enemies up ahead." Morgan pointed to a well-lit opening at the end of the corridor. The enemy had knights at the front, with archers and mages behind them. Not too hard to break through, she thought.

"Morgan, if you need me to, I can summon illusions to distract the enemy. Just call for it."

"Alright. We won't need it right now. Kellam! Throw one of your spears over the knights at that mage!" Kellam nodded and chucked a spear, which flew over the enemy knight and skewered the mage in the chest, knocking him down. Vaike and Kellam began fighting the knights, while Miriel and Morgan took care of the ranged enemies. The bandits were dead in minutes, and as the Shepherds progressed further into the castle, Morgan noticed Jasmine shivering and clinging to Mina.

"What's wrong?"

"She's not used to seeing people die like this, even if they do deserve it." The group progressed into the opening and found it led into a huge armory, full of weapons and gold. Stacks of crates were arranged in a grid, making many miniature corridors out of the room. All of this stuff had to be worth ten of thousands in gold, Morgan thought.

"This must be their stash, huh?" Vaike asked. From atop her horse, Morgan could see her father's tacky outfit appearing from another entrance across the room.

"Yeah. Father!" Morgan called from the other side of the room. Hale noticed that her forces had made it through alright, and that everyone had arrived at what appeared to be the last bastion of any enemy forces.

"Wait. Did we already get rid of all the bandits?" Ricken asked. The Shepherds merged at Morgan's corner of the room. She looked at her father, both of them feeling a sense of uneasiness at the fact that no enemies had shown themselves.

"Okay. I think we should sweep the room and make sure no one else is here." Hale said.

"Yeah. Be careful, everyone. Kellam, Chrom, you two watch the exits. The rest of us will clear the room." As the army began to spread out, Hale noticed a pair of identical-looking sisters standing next to Kellam. They must have been imprisoned here, he thought. He would have to ask them some questions later. He turned around and noticed a shadow race across the ceiling towards Kellam. A figure landed on top of one of the crates and fired an arrow not at him, but at the younger girl.

"Kellam! Watch out!" He yelled, readying a cast of Arcwind to attempt to blow the cloaked figure off of the crates. Kellam attempted to jump in front of the arrow, but Mina saw it coming before he did and turned inwards to protect Jasmine, the arrow piercing Mina's shoulder. Jasmine let out a scream loud enough to draw everyone's attention, and the figure threw its cloak off in a dramatic fashion, leaping to another crate and dodging Hale's attack in the process. It revealed a brown-skinned, woman with long, black hair sporting a sly smile on her face, who immediately pulled a staff from her back and cast a shield around herself.

"I should've… known you'd be here!" Mina said as Lissa ran over to her. Three magic attacks flew at the shield and were absorbed, causing the staff that generated it to glow and restore its power.

"You are _so_ lucky these people are here to save you. And that these stupid bandits held me up long enough for them to get to you before I did. What a waste of space those cretins were." Lissa carefully removed the arrow from Mina's shoulder and healed the wound, allowing her to stand up straight again. Jasmine's face was buried in her chest, the younger girl shaking with fear at the woman's voice.

"What is it going to take for you to forgive me, Katrina? _She_ hasn't even done anything to you!" Katrina glared at Mina holding Jasmine close to her, the shield absorbing another round of magic blasts. Morgan was surprised that the barrier could withstand the combined might of her, Miriel, Laurent, Ricken, and Maribelle. Whoever this Katrina person was, she was incredibly skilled at using staves and resisting magic.

"She's still you. And you know why she has to die. But today, you've escaped what you deserve. If any of the rest of you gets between me and _them,_ you won't survive." Katrina knocked the bottom of the staff against the crate and warped away, leaving the Shepherds with far more questions than they came in with. They all looked to Mina, who was still trying to comfort Jasmine.

"I'll explain what's going on once you get us somewhere safe." The illusionist turned her head to look at Morgan, who was confused as to why she had heard of her and not her father.

"We can take you back to Ylisstol, if you have no place else to go. That assassin doesn't look like she ought to be trifled with, so we will continue to guard you two for now." Chrom stated. If Frederick was here, he would immediately voice his objections to doing so, especially after witnessing that there was someone competent out to kill them. But he had been assigned to lead the recruits' training back in Ylisstol, which was a job he definitely looked forward to doing. Still, that only delayed his inevitable lecture.

* * *

**A/N: If Mina was an in-game unit, her class would be Illusionist. Katrina is a cross between an Assassin and a Trickster, which I'll call the Hunter class. I think you've noticed that these chapters are getting progressively longer. Not a bad thing, but I'll try to keep individual updates from going over 5,000 words. As before, if you've got something to say about this story, feel free to say it in a review. Next update coming soon!**


	4. Chapter 4

"So, I suppose you weren't able to do it. Again." Katrina walked through an open door and glared at the man talking to her, who was sitting at a table. That bushy brown head of his looked like a dead raccoon, she thought.

"How was I supposed to know she'd have a bunch of soldiers protecting her? I followed her through the Gate, just like I've been doing. I thought I had her, but I landed in the middle of somebody else's fight and I couldn't get away long enough to catch her alone." The man smiled and took a sip of his beer.

"I see. Don't worry, Katrina. You'll have your chance to kill her. Both of her. If you're not able to do it the easy way, we'll just wait for my preparations to complete. Then no force in all the realms will be able to stop us." She put her weapons away and then sat down across from him at the table. How he could be so patient about it was beyond her; then again, he hadn't once lifted a finger to try and kill Mina himself. He had every reason to want to do it, but he always refused to join her on her attempts, saying that he couldn't run off to various realms and manage his _other_ plans at the same time.

"How much longer is it going to take, Tyler?" He took another sip of his beer, reached into his coat, and pulled out a stack of cards, bound by a piece of string. He untied the string and laid the deck in front of Katrina, spreading out the cards in a line. Katrina saw that each of the fifty-plus cards had a portrait of someone on them.

"This is what my boys brought me on _one trip._ Really, it wasn't that hard at all. They said some old geezer was keeping them. He didn't realize how much power he was actually holding. Neither did my team, until they found his stash of them underneath a bunch of trashy romance novels in a drawer." Katrina was surprised at how many there were. One trip brought back all that? Tyler's men were lucky enough to find three or four of them, but this many should've easily been enough to accomplish their goals.

"Now before you yell at me for being lazy and not doing anything with this, remember what you just told me. You went into a realm and found yourself outmatched. These cards aren't exactly easy to come by. If I invoke their power and go into a realm I don't know with them, they will fight until they either win or die. They don't accept defeat; that's just how they are. So if I'm going to use them at all, I had better be _sure_ that I don't lose. Understand?" Tyler collected the cards, tied them up, and put them back in his coat. Katrina frowned at him.

"You haven't answered my question."

"As soon as we figure out what's going on in the new realm Mina escaped to. She actually found a good set of guardians this time, so I think she'll decide to stay with them long enough for us to do some recon. I'll arrange for a team to go as soon as possible. As for me, I have a meeting with a man who tells me that I can get rid of that problem these cards have. You can do whatever you want in the meantime." Katrina took a breath and made eye contact with Tyler, brown eyes looking into brown eyes. As annoying as he could be sometimes, he made up for it by showing that he knew exactly what he was doing. Nothing fazed him. Also, she was the only one he gave that kind of freedom to. Everybody else actually had to obey him.

"I'm going to go to sleep, then. I'm tired." She got up from the table and left for her bedroom. After she was gone, Tyler decided to finish the rest of his beer all at once, gulping down the entire bottom half of it. From within his coat he produced a folded piece of paper, which he unfolded onto the table, revealing a drawing of Mina and him, kissing in front of a brilliantly orange sunset. He smiled and traced the outlines of her face.

"We had everything we ever dreamed of. Our suffering was supposed to have ended. And then you not only brought it back, but you also sentenced everyone else to join in it. You've brought a nightmare upon us all, my former beloved."

* * *

Frederick had the palm of his hand resting against his face. Why didn't Chrom ever learn not to immediately believe the stories of random folk that he found who-knows-where? Unlike Hale, these girls carried an actual, tangible threat – the assassin that everyone clearly remembered seeing. What would it take for the young ruler to be more _careful_ about things like that?

"We cannot just leave these two unprotected. If we don't guard them from that assassin, they'll surely be killed." Yet the senior knight had no answer to that – the Shepherds were Ylisse's most elite military force. They were the best guards in the country. Considering that this assassin was capable of shielding multiple blows of powerful magic, it was very unlikely that anybody else could protect these two young women.

"Milord, I would request that these two be placed as far away from you and Lissa as possible." He finally said, removing his hand from his face. He now saw the girl called Mina with a solemn look on her face, looking directly at him. The younger girl with an identical appearance to her, called Jasmine, stood beside her looking at the floor.

"That is perfectly fine. We are truly grateful for your kindness and hospitality. In return, I'll explain why Katrina is after us." Jasmine leaned in and whispered something to Mina, making a soft whining noise.

"Ah. Where is the ladies' room?" Frederick raised an eyebrow at Jasmine's strange behavior. As wary as he was of Mina, his intuition told him that Jasmine was as innocent as they come – that kind of traumatization couldn't be faked.

"It's not too far from here. Lissa can show you where it is. "

"Thank you. We'll talk as soon as we're done." The princess walked off with the two girls, Chrom and Frederick slowly following behind. The ruler and the knight waited in a nearby lounge, where Morgan and Hale entered.

"Chrom! There you are. I've been looking for you. Do you know where Mina is?"

"She's with Lissa and Jasmine in the ladies' room. They'll be out shortly." As Chrom said this, the three women rounded the corner, Lissa giggling about something while Mina rolled her eyes. Even Jasmine, who had never been seen in a happy mood in the days it took to get back to Ylisstol, smiled a bit.

"Okay, I get it. I'm wrong. You're right. Let's just focus on why I'm here. You all should sit down. This may take a while." Everyone took a seat in a lounge chair except for Mina. She took out the rose-colored tome and appeared to gather dust from the air, the cloud coalescing into the image of a red-haired woman about as old as Frederick. She wore a set of silver, rectangular glasses, and wore a brilliant white coat decorated with violet swirls, a matching pair of pants and boots, and had a tattoo of what appeared to be an exploding sun on the back of her right hand. It would have been majestic had it been a formal garment, like a dress.

"Morgan, you were wondering why I recognized you, but not your father. I had been confused myself as to why you looked so different here, but your remark about having time traveled made sense of it. You are not the same Morgan that I know, that my people know. The woman you see here knew so much about the Outrealms, she was considered a living library on them. For that, the people that decided to leave their homeworlds to live as nomads amongst the realms until they either found a permanent home or died, those which we call Xenosouls, treated her almost as if she was a queen." Morgan got up from her seat and approached the older, wiser version of herself, who looked at her before smiling and waving, making her jump back a little bit in surprise.

"You mean, in some other timeline, I roamed the Outrealms and grew up to be… her?"

"That would explain there being two of you, yes. What does she have to do with me, though? I have recently become a Xenosoul, as have the people that are after me and Jasmine. I joined Morgan's nomads shortly after I had left my home, and as soon as I learned how to travel across realms, I came across Jasmine in my first and only attempt to try and go back home. I landed in a timeline where her power over illusions made her a prime hostage for enemy nations, so I decided to rescue her from that life of being a living tool. You see, Jasmine isn't just capable of seeing images like this one as fake. She can tell when a person is lying – and is immune to any sort of mental distortion an enemy might employ."

"How did you make the older Morgan move like that?" Lissa asked, and both Mina and the illusion turned to face her.

"When I conjure an illusion, I imbue it with as much personality I can. They can't actually touch anything, though." She dispelled the image of Morgan and in its place, crafted a shadowy figure with a set of long, serrated claws. The claws were the only thing about the strange creature with any sort of detail: clearly made of metal, rusted slightly, with sparks occasionally dancing across their surfaces. The rest of the creature's body was represented as vaguely humanoid blobs.

"Our home was invaded by these monsters. They can cloak themselves in darkness, making them invisible until they strike with terrible weapons such as these. They were incredibly intelligent, killing those of us able to see them and stopping the production of magical sources that could do it in their stead. I do not know the reasons for your own extradimensional travel, Morgan, but I feel that you might understand what I'm talking about."

"Yeah. There are actually a good number of people here that came from an alternate future where Grima, the god-like Fell Dragon, succeeded in possessing my father and destroying our world. I don't know if I was one of those – I don't remember a whole lot about my original timeline other than my father's presence." It hadn't bothered her as much now that she could be around her family, but it was still difficult to remember anything else. Nothing really seemed to jog her memory of her previous life. Morgan was beginning to think that her memory might've been permanently erased by something, that she would never reclaim that knowledge of her old life.

"Chrom! Chrom!" The voice of Ricken suddenly interrupted the discussion as the young mage ran into the lounge.

"What's the problem, Ricken?" Chrom asked, getting out of his seat. Ricken gave an uneasy look at Hale.

"Well, you know how Hale said people would come back from the Outrealm Gate that we thought were dead? Yeah, the Gate just opened right outside the city – and there's a ton of Risen coming out!" Everyone except Jasmine stood up, and Mina's illusion disappeared.

"Gods! We have to get out there and make sure they don't reach the people!" Chrom shouted. He immediately turned to Frederick.

"Frederick, get Mina and Jasmine somewhere safe. Tell everyone else that can fight to meet me at the edge of the city."

"Of course." Frederick nodded and began to escort the two away.

"You know how you mentioned a bunch of shadowy monsters attacking people your world? Well, we've got those too – reanimated corpses called Risen. Don't worry, Mina. They're not nearly as dangerous as the things you described. We'll be back soon!" Morgan said as people began to leave the castle. She looked to her father: who was going to command the army this time around?

"Morgan, do you think you can handle this?" He asked her, knowing what she was going to ask before she said anything. These were just Risen, right? Even when having someone telling them what to do, they were mindless and predictable. They didn't even leave any bodies behind, either.

"Yeah! Ricken, how many were there?" The mage gulped and tried to remember. He was _this close_ to proposing to Maribelle right outside Ylisstol when the Gate opened. He had worked up the courage to finally do it, and then the stupid Risen had to start pouring out of it.

"Um, at least thirty. They looked pretty strong, too." Morgan nodded. They'd have to be Deadlord-class strong in order to really present a threat to the Shepherds. She hoped it wasn't going to be that difficult. She could remember her father's intense concentration the first time they had fought the Deadlords – he had to utilize chokepoints and line up the army perfectly to make sure they attacked those that could take the hits. There was never any room for error; if something went wrong, he'd beat himself up over it once the battle was over. Thankfully, no one had ever died under his command.

The Shepherds gathered outside Ylisstol, Sumia and Cordelia returning from scouting.

"How is it?" Morgan asked. Both of them looked uneasy, and they made eye contact with each other before Cordelia spoke.

"There are exactly thirty-one Risen heading towards our position. However, what Hale has foreseen has come to pass. Leading them is Gangrel, the Mad King. We were sure he was dead, but he must have come through the Outrealm Gate with the Risen to try and assault us." Sumia nodded and continued where she left off.

"He brought a lot of fliers and mages. A third of his force is wyverns and pegasi. Another third is mages, and he has a bunch of berserkers leading them. I think he really wants to get into town and hurt people as quickly as possible." Morgan quickly attempted to think of a scenario she had rehearsed that resembled this. Could she spread out everyone to try and keep Gangrel's forces from making it inside?

"Something tells me this is a repeat of our defense of Tiki. Gangrel isn't even using real people this time – he has nothing to lose from ignoring us entirely and going straight for the civilians. Morgan, I think we should fortify our defenses and make sure _none of them_ get within the walls." Hale said, looking at the top of the city walls. Enough people could be stationed there with ranged weaponry to fend off the fliers, while the rest would block the ground forces from getting in.

"Yeah. Okay! All the mages should get up on the walls with wind magic. That'll fend off the fliers and give us a good vantage point to attack the Risen on the ground. The others can form a blockade at the gates to make sure they don't get through. And you two – you make sure that the fliers don't get through." Morgan indicated Sumia and Cordelia. For a moment, she thought that it would've been nice to have Mina up here with them, as she could use bows. Her illusions would be capable of distracting the Risen, allowing for the Shepherds to have superior positioning. But she wouldn't leave Jasmine alone, and Morgan wouldn't make her, either.

"Of course!" The pegasus knights exclaimed, taking to the air. Hale held back for a moment as the rest of the army moved towards their positions.

"Gangrel has the same skills as I do – he has the magic power of a Trickster, but he also has something I don't have yet: an enchantment called Lucky Seven. It makes him difficult to hit or to avoid early on in the battle. Watch out for that." Hale advised before moving to his position towards the back of the blockade. Morgan herself would be behind one of the melee fighters.

_'This is your chance. You've been given a challenge, and now you have to overcome it. All of that practice with Father will find its real worth right now.'_ She thought, watching the purple aura of the Risen get closer by the second.

* * *

**A/N: I spent the last few days working on some backstories for the OCs, hence this chapter's delay compared to the previous ones. As before, if you've got an opinion you want to share with me about the story, type it out and send it in. Many thanks to Temporary Permanent for the first review. Yes, I do like the way those two speak. **


	5. Chapter 5

Morgan noticed that the ten Risen fliers were simultaneously moving on their position. It looked like Gangrel wanted to overwhelm the army's defenses and brute force his way in.

"Mages, I need everyone to prepare an attack right now! We're going to fire a single, coordinated burst of wind magic at these fliers!" At least the Mad King had the intelligence to wait until his ground forces were close enough to hit at the same time. Good for him, maybe, but that would make their job harder.

"Chrom! I hope you have enough spaces in the dirt to bury all of your pathetic little Shepherds!" Gangrel was now close enough to be heard. A few more seconds, and the battle would begin in earnest. Chrom glared at the Plegian ruler and tightened his grip on his sword. This version of Gangrel was no better than the one in this timeline, and so deserved the same fate.

"You will be the only one buried today!" Chrom responded. He was standing in the middle of the front of the blockade, alongside Kellam and Sully.

"We're sending you straight back to hell!" Sully added, swinging her lance. Morgan watched from directly behind Chrom, next to Vaike and Stahl. The fliers were just about to strike the top, and the berserkers about to strike the front.

"Mages! On my mark!" She commanded. Five wyverns, five pegasi. All rushing at the wall, death the only thing on their minds – if they even had minds. She hoped that none of them would get through, that if any of them did, Sumia and Cordelia would stop them from going any further.

"Fire!" She shouted, and immediately after heard the sounds of metal clanking upon metal, bursts of magic immediately coming out of the air to supplement them. She dodged a cast of Arcthunder and responded by sending a blast of Bolganone at the mages that had grouped up on one side of the berserkers. The fireball hit, exploding and forcing the enemy mages to move back. Kellam had been able to deal with the axe-wielding Risen directly in front of him, but had taken multiple hits from the mages Morgan had managed to scatter. Chrom and Sully easily dispatched each mindless Risen that dared to swing an axe in their direction – neither of them taking any damage from the melee warriors.

"Begone, foul miscreation!" Morgan heard her mother shout as she launched a cruel gust of wind down at the mages that had fallen back after being hit by Bolganone. She only now noticed the bodies of the Risen fliers dissolving into purple smoke on the ground, and turned her head to watch Rexcalibur's gust literally shred Miriel's target into pieces, which dissolved out of existence before hitting the ground. This drew the aggression of the surviving mages, who all began to target her at once. Morgan was just slightly out of range to land another cast, and so focused her attention back to the right side mages, who were trying to pepper Chrom and Sully with attacks.

"Someone heal Kellam!" She shouted, noticing the knight was straining against the next berserker that had lined up to attack. Firing another blast of Bolganone at the mages, she noticed that they now outnumbered Gangrel's forces and so could move out of their protective blockade.

"Vaike! Get out there and attack the remaining mages! Stahl! Take Chrom's place. Chrom! Attack the mages on your right!" The warm, pleasant green aura of a Physic staff enveloped Kellam. Their own berserker happily obliged and charged at the left side mages, who were too busy trying to attack Miriel to get away from him in time. Stahl rode forward as Chrom's blade glowed with a golden aura, which was followed by the ruler leaping into the air and slicing one of the Risen in two, a green healing aura surrounding him after the blow. The second blow cut another mage in half, brilliant orange sparks flying from Chrom's sword.

"Sumia, I need a lift!" Hale called from behind Morgan. Some of the fliers must have survived the attack – there were only so many mages to attack them with. She noticed that Gangrel hadn't charged in alongside his army; he stood at a distance from the fighting, alone. He looked like a tempting target, but she remembered that the first assault on Plegia Castle had ended in the Mad King summoning an entire wave of Risen out of nowhere and killing Phila, the former commander of the pegasus knights. Hale and Chrom were beside themselves with guilt for letting their guard down at that moment, not to mention that Emmeryn had also died that day.

"Miriel! Come with me!" Cordelia flew onto the wall and quickly picked her up to chase the three fliers that hadn't been killed. Morgan moved forward and blasted one of the enemy mages with Thoron, opting not use Bolganone as Vaike was too close to its explosion radius. He was hit with Arcfire and Arcwind, but smiled through the pain and cut down the last of the left-side mages. Lissa rolled her eyes and healed him from a distance with Physic. Stahl took a hit from one of the berserkers, but he followed it up with a solid blow to its chest from his sword.

'_We've got them on the ropes now.'_ Morgan thought, firing a cast of Thoron at one of the mages Chrom was too far away from to attack. The mage tried to fight back by launching a wave of Arcfire at her, which she deflected towards the wall, leaving a scorch mark. That had hurt a little bit, but it was no big deal.

"You must be having _fun,_ I bet!" Gangrel cackled from his position away from the fighting. Chrom pulled his sword out of the dissolving Risen he had just killed and turned towards him, pointing his sword at the Mad King.

"Why have you come here? Do you not see that your Risen are falling left and right? What did you hope to accomplish, you dastard?" He would have loved to charge him and lop his head off with a sword, but previous experiences reminded him of how bad an idea that could be. The last time he had killed Gangrel, it was with the support of the entire army behind him – but at the moment, they were busy killing the remaining Risen. Going in alone would be unwise, at the very least.

"A mere test of skill, boy! Did you honestly think I would be so stupid as to risk my own life coming here? To your own capital? Pah! But now I know just how strong you and your Shepherds are." Chrom noticed that the remaining ground forces had just been finished off. He hadn't seen if any of the fliers had gotten through the blockade, but was sure that Sumia and Cordelia could take care of them.

"Chrom! Let's get him!" Morgan said, leading the Shepherds forward. The lord nodded and focused his attention on his sword, trying to let the energies of Aether flow through him and into his attacks. He felt the energy peak as he swung his sword at Gangrel, who dodged the Sol slash. The energy in Chrom's arms burned as he attacked again, the Luna slash ready to destroy its target.

"I don't think so!" Gangrel barely avoided the sword, leaping back a great distance. He took out a dark, purple ball from his shirt and crushed it in his hand, enveloping him in a purple mist. When the mist dissipated, he was sitting behind a Risen wyvern rider, who then began to take off.

"Your days are numbered, exalt! If you thought I was bad, just wait until the _rest of us_ come back to you!" The Plegian ruler cackled again as the wyvern began to fly away. A gust of wind then blew in, rocking both riders and turning his boisterous laugh into a shriek of terror. He then knocked the Risen in the back of the head, shouting,

"Watch it, you brainless sack of filth! If you try to tip me over, I'll knock you down and fly this thing myself!" The Risen growled at him. The wyvern flew away, the rest of the Shepherds just now arriving at Chrom's position.

"Where are Sumia and Cordelia?" Chrom asked. Morgan looked back to the walls and saw only the mages that were still there. If they hadn't returned by now, there wasn't going to be much of a chance of them catching Gangrel.

"They must still be dealing with the fliers that got over the wall. There weren't that many. I'm sorry, Chrom. I don't think we'll be able to catch him. " She said, watching the wyvern fly off into the distance. Once again, Mina would've been great to have on the battlefield – someone capable of using a Brave Bow would've had a good chance of landing a shot on Gangrel or the wyvern.

"He'll return. If I heard what he said correctly, he isn't the only antagonist we've killed that will return. I imagine Aversa and Walhart will also appear at some point, as well as Validar. We're going to need to call on our friends once again to deal with this." Chrom sheathed his sword and turned back towards the walls of Ylisstol.

* * *

The last three fliers had decided to try and gang up on Sumia and Hale, which ended up being a terrible idea for them as the tactician's prowess in wind magic remained to where a single blast of Rexcalibur instantly felled the wyvern rider. Sumia deflected the attacks of the pegasus knights while Cordelia and Miriel flew in to help, Miriel expertly aiming Thoron such one of the enemy fliers was dazed by the shot, allowing Cordelia to finish it off.

"Let's finish this one off with Thunderstorm." Hale said to Miriel, winking. She smiled and switched to Arcthunder. As the last Risen flier charged at Sumia, Hale formed another gust of Rexcalibur.

"Now!" He shouted, letting the attack fly. At the same time, Miriel called down the bolts of Arcthunder right in front of the flier, hitting the wind magic instead and giving the green swirls of the attack a golden glow, with sparks arcing through it. The Risen even seemed to realize what was coming towards it and attempted to slow down, but was hit by the attack and exploded in a burst of dissolving purple bits, some of which hit Sumia in the face.

"Eww! That's so gross!" She shuddered, the pieces already having dissolved. Her pegasus neighed as if to laugh at her, making her frown.

"I don't think that was necessary, Hale." The tactician chuckled a bit.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think the impact would've been so explosive. It's the first time Miriel and I have utilized that attack in a real battle. She had theorized that a type of magic could be combined with another and needed some help testing those ideas. I adapted our findings to a more practical use."

"Your explanation has reminded me of our next set of trials. When the others have dispatched the remaining Risen, we should begin testing the effects of combining fire and thunder magic. Perhaps we will be able to extract another useful attack from our experiments." Miriel said to Hale, who nodded and turned back towards the walls.

"Yes. We should return to the rest of the army. They may still need our help." At his words, the two pegasus knights flew off, allowing a hooded figure to come out of its hiding place behind one of the nearby buildings. Those people had matched some of the descriptions that Katrina had given – especially the horribly-dressed man giving the orders.

"Quite impressive. I'll have to write that one down." He said to himself, taking out a pen and a notepad and scribbling a few notes about the attack he just witnessed. The hooded man then went over what he had so far: this was the city of Ylisstol, the capital of Ylisse.

It was ruled by a strong, fair, handsome blue-haired young man named Chrom, whose older sister Emmeryn died in a previous war with Plegia, a country that to this day was still not on the best of terms with Ylisse. He had a younger sister, Lissa, a proficient healer, and his best friend was also his tactician, Hale – the man responsible for slaying a god-like dragon named Grima. More minor notes about Chrom's fighting force called the Shepherds, and some more details about the city, like the fact that undead warriors called Risen were currently trying to get in. Nothing about taking in any refugees, though… then again, a man like Chrom probably wouldn't make that known, the hooded man thought.

"That's pretty good. Mina's not leaving these people. They're way too good to her. They've also probably bought whatever story she told them to make them think she was innocent. Don't think we can waltz in and tell them otherwise. I guess Tyler will have to call on those spiritual warriors, after all." He put away his pen and notepad and wandered back into the city, content with the amount of information he had gathered.

* * *

"I apologize for not getting to my point sooner." Mina said before Frederick, Chrom, Lissa, Hale, and Morgan in the castle's throne room. Chrom only ever used it as a meeting room for special guests, and never sat on the throne himself. Jasmine seemed to be getting more comfortable every day, although she still didn't like to leave Mina's side.

"Katrina and her group are after me because they consider me responsible for what happened to our world. I liked to do research on unusual creatures and phenomena – and I was part of a small group that studied the cloaking monsters that later attacked us. We were only ever able to pick up little tidbits – remains of animals that had been killed by them and broken weapons. We were fascinated about what kind of creature could make those kinds of marks in its prey, and why we were never able to observe one of them hunting. When they started going after people, our group was blamed for aggravating the monsters and causing their hunt of the human race. As far as I know, I'm the only one of us still alive."

"Even if that were the case, it sounds like there was no way you could have known that would happen. You knew so little about those monsters. Why would your group be targeted when your world needed all the information it could get? What gain was there in killing them?" Chrom asked. Mina sighed, looking at the ceiling.

"We didn't have that much to give that the world didn't already have. While our group wasn't given much attention before the attacks, all of our findings were thoroughly recorded and preserved. I've learned about what's taken place in your world from Frederick – our world was on the verge of a war like that between Ylisse and Plegia, with Katrina and I on opposing sides of it. Her group was going to come after us regardless. They already had the information we'd recorded, so they felt justified in attacking us."

"They have been through many worlds, attempting to evade her pursuers. She has stated that this is the safest one she's ever been in since her escape from her home." Frederick said.

"Chrom, you believe that Aversa, Walhart, and Validar are to return through the Outrealm Gate based off of what Gangrel said?" Hale asked. By the time he had returned to the front, the Mad King was a shrinking dot in the distance.

"He didn't mention them by name, but it's likely that the 'rest of us' is referring to at least one of them. I think we will need to ask for our friends' help once more. Mina, we will keep a guard for you and Jasmine for as long as you need, but we have to know: what do you plan on doing once Katrina and her group are no longer a threat to you?"

"Home." Jasmine's voice was sharp and loud, her eyes narrowing and her hands beginning to clench into fists. Mina leaned over and whispered to her, holding her hands and calming her down. Jasmine turned to her older self, her eyes still full of an anger Mina hadn't ever seen before.

"I won't run forever." She muttered, loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room.

"Do you want to stay here?" Mina asked. Jasmine closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Yes. And you?"

"I won't leave you by yourself. I know these people will take care of you, but… I want to be the one to teach you about growing up. Yes, I know I still have some of that left to do. You're all I have now, you know?" Morgan watched their conversation and immediately thought of when she had first met her father in this timeline. They had had a talk like this one, too. Well, after they had taken out all the Risen.

"Mm. Okay." Jasmine quietly replied, her anger dissipating. Mina let go of her hands and turned to the rest of the group.

"I guess that answers your question, Chrom. We want to live here, in your world. I'm sure I could find some work as a researcher – and since illusion magic isn't well-known here, I could even make a living teaching others the art. I'd find a way to support both of us."

"Then it's settled. I must ask, Mina: is there no way we can take the fight to Katrina? I would rather take the initiative in taking down her group than wait for her to attack you."

"I believe that since I've been here long enough, her group will have sent out a search party for me. It's likely they've already scouted Ylisstol and the surrounding areas trying to get an idea of my location. You saw that Katrina can warp herself away; I think she can use that to return any of her forces to the Outrealms once their business is through. They wouldn't have a camp here. I don't know where their base of operations is in the Outrealms. You already have another threat bearing down on you; I don't know if you can spend the resources searching them in order to find where they are." Morgan thought about how Mina had said she escaped her world once the monsters had overrun it. She couldn't remember how she had ended up in this timeline, and although the Shepherds were well-aware that Lucina and a large group of their children from the future had traveled back in time, no one had asked about the details concerning how they did it.

"Mina, I have a question. You went through the Outrealm Gate in your world to escape, right? How come the monsters didn't follow you through? Did the gate close behind you?" That was three questions, but she hoped Mina wouldn't mind.

"The Xenosoul Morgan explained to me that these Gates tend to open and close at various intervals depending on the worlds they connect. In my world, they would only remain open for a few minutes at a time before sharply closing – that's how we escaped without being followed. We never had a lasting Gate like yours. However, it _is_ possible to close a Gate with the right magic, and even to keep them from opening from other realms."

"Do you know where the other me is right now?" Morgan quickly asked, jumping at the new info. The others began to look at each other, beginning to catch onto her train of thought.

"Somewhere in the Outrealms, that's all I know. Are you going to propose trying to find her in order to close the Gate to your world? You could prevent your old enemies from coming back that way _and_ prevent Katrina's group from escaping once they enter. It sounds like a good idea, but I don't know where she is, Morgan. It may take years to find her. You might come back to Ylisse exactly as it is now, but how much of your life would you be willing to give up in the process?" Hale responded to her question.

"I think it is worth a shot. Think about it, everyone: we cannot control what comes out of the Outrealm Gate. We have been very fortunate to not have any external threats other than the Risen attack our world in the time it's been open. However, we can't rest assured that it will stay that way forever. We need a way to control that Gate. If finding the other Morgan is the only way we can achieve that, then it will be worth whatever time we may spend in the Outrealms." The tactician pondered the course of action for a moment before realizing another thing.

"Also, we may be able to find Katrina's base of operations in our search. That way, we can do what Chrom suggested – we can take the fight to her and stop her from trying to kill you. Chrom, what do you think?" The ruler hadn't particularly liked venturing into the Outrealms, even after learning that there was no time wasted from doing so. Calling on the former Shepherds to defend the world from their previous enemies would take some time, and would certainly involve pulling them from whatever pursuits they had chosen to take up since leaving. If he left and took years to return, that would subtract the time he had to guide the people of Ylisse.

"It is an action that carries much weight. Allow me to consider it, and I'll tell you what I think of it in the morning."

* * *

**A/N: Was considering making this two separate chapters, but this is within my 5,000-word limit I talked about earlier. As always, leave your opinion in a review if you feel like telling me how good or bad I'm doing. I'll try to keep the updates coming at least once a week.**


	6. Chapter 6

Tyler knocked on the door, looking at the numbers on the house and comparing them to the address on the piece of paper. 913 Martella Way, or the house with the horribly tacky door ornament.

"Whoever thought an ornament made out of old staff heads was a good idea should've gone to art school." He muttered, putting the piece of paper into his coat. The door opened to reveal a red-haired boy about thirteen years old, who closed one eye at Tyler and put an index finger on his chin.

"What are you here for?" The boy asked him, looking up at him with a mischievous smile.

"I'm looking for the person who told me that I could bring focus to the warriors of spirit." The boy cocked his head, not taking his finger off of his chin.

"I know who you're talking about. You've come to the right place. Come on in!" He turned around and led Tyler into the house, which was full of shelves lined with knickknacks and old staves. A weapons rack was next to the couch, presumably for the family to defend themselves in case of bandit attacks or the like. Most notable was the line of family portraits adorning the fireplace mantle: all red-haired, red-eyed individuals with an astonishing number of identical siblings. Tyler wondered if the Outrealms had some sort of magic that influenced such progeny.

"I'll bring you the guy you're looking for… but it's going to cost you." Tyler turned from the mantle to the boy, who was pulling out a list of some sort. He looked through the list and mumbled the names of various items to himself before focusing back on Tyler.

"What do you have to offer me?" He had expected to pay some sort of price on this trip, but this wasn't what he had in mind. Judging by the sheer amount of _stuff_ in this house, it likely belonged to a merchant family, he deduced. Not only that, but if this boy was any indication, every member was raised to be a merchant.

"This might be redundant to you, but how about… one of these?" Tyler took out the deck of cards from his coat and undid its binding, spreading out some of them to show the boy.

"Pick whichever one you like." The boy got closer and pulled a card with the portrait of a thin, red-haired lord out. He read the description on it: _Eliwood, Wielder of Durandal and Lord of Pherae. _He knew exactly what these cards were – containers for the Einherjar, spiritual warriors fashioned after legends of other realms. Some were stronger than others, just as the real people would have been. He cycled through all the cards Tyler possessed, surprised that a single person could possess so many – and rare ones, at that.

"You're only getting one, so make it quick."

"Hold on." He took out one of the cards and read its description: _Merlinus, Traveling Merchant Extraordinaire. _He showed the card with the middle-aged, indigo-haired man to Tyler.

"Seriously? What good is this guy in battle?" Tyler shrugged.

"I've never used them before. Never really bothered to look at them all. Listen, just pick one of these so I can meet the man I came here for."

"Alright, fine. I'll take… her." His fingers moved across the cards and pulled out one with a portrait of a young woman with long, green hair, dressed in the clothing of a nomad.

"Lyndis, Wielder of the Mani Katti and Lady of Sacae. Man, she would make a killing on the market. Literally. Okay, I'll go get him. You can have a seat in the meantime." The boy walked off through another door at the back of the room, Tyler choosing to sit down on the plushy couch. The realm this house was in felt a bit more like his own, with people living in suburbs rather than villages. Cities were more organized and roads were more prevalent. An image of Mina and himself entered his mind, where they were walking down the city streets, making comments on the houses they passed by.

'_She would have liked that tacky thing on the front door just because it was creative.'_ He shook his head and dispelled the rest of that thought.

"So, you are Tyler?" An older man's voice helped to break his focus, prompting Tyler to stand up. The first thing he noticed about him was his eyepatch, along with a nasty-looking set of scars that looked like a drill had been inserted in his eye. He also resembled the boy that had taken one of his cards, but with brown hair and brown eyes.

"Yes, sir." The man looked at the door and then back to Tyler, letting out a breath.

"Anthony made you give him something, didn't he? I'm very sorry about that; he gets that behavior from his mother and sisters. If you want, I can return it to you."

"No need, sir. I had expected there to be some kind of cost for this."

"My name is Marco. We both know why you're here: you want to control the Einherjars' single-minded fury once they're summoned. First of all, the Einherjar will listen to the commands of whoever summons them without question – and that includes any command to retreat or hold position. As far as you are concerned, their unflinching loyalty is not a bad thing, as long as you are the one who calls them. I think this should clear up your initial misunderstanding about how they function. As such, I think you are really after the ability to command them regardless of who actually brings them to life on the battlefield. Is that right?" Tyler frowned, trying to remember what little correspondence he had that led him to Marco. Someone must have gotten their information screwed up somewhere.

"That sounds nice, but it wasn't exactly what I came here for. But since you seem to be the expert on them, tell me this: where do the cards come from? How are they made?"

"You already know the basics, I believe. The magic used to create them is like that the necromancers use, but requires a relic from the person one wishes to model the spirit after. A piece of their body would be ideal: a hair, a fingernail, a piece of bone. If that is not available, then an object that has come in contact with them would also work. There is a society of wizards dedicated to their creation, who I believe travel with a nomadic group called the Xenosouls. They go around realms and collect relics from them, creating Einherjar and giving them to people who need protection. A fairly noble cause, I believe."

"So if I wanted to have exclusive command over them, would I have to learn it from them?" Tyler asked.

"If you don't mind me asking, Tyler… why is this important to you?" Marco said, his one eye looking carefully at him. It wasn't often people in this realm went looking specifically for the Einherjar. An old man calling himself Old Hubba was one of those, a collector of the cards who was reputed to have been one of the wizards capable of creating them. When Marco met him, however, he quickly figured out those rumors were false; however the old man got his collection of Einherjar, he sure couldn't make any more.

"I need their power to defeat the person responsible for destroying my home. I can't take any chances when it comes to this, so I want to be absolutely sure that these warriors will obey me when I need them to." Marco nodded and reached into his pocket, pulling out a map. He noticed that the young man's voice quivered slightly. Like Old Hubba, Tyler had collected a large amount of Einherjar – but unlike the old geezer, he was actually planning to put them to good use.

"The Xenosouls gave me this map of the realms after my recent stay with them. You may copy it down and use it for your own purposes; last I heard, they were heading back to the realm known as Kalsoba. Right here." Marco pointed out the name on the map, which was written next to a small circle. The entire map was a bunch of circles of various sizes, connected by lines telling which Gates led where.

"Well, I guess I'll get started. I appreciate the help, Marco. What do I owe you for it?" Marco laid out the map on the table in front of the couch. Tyler sat down and took out a pen and paper, drawing the circles and lines. When he had finished, he compared the maps to make sure they were correct.

"Only one thing: when you finish off whoever it is that ruined your home, you come back to me and tell me about it. I'm not moving away from here. You'll know where to find me." Tyler stood back up and nodded.

"Sure. I'm certain it'll be quite the tale."

* * *

"I'll have to stay here, Morgan. I have to take care of Ylisse. Lissa will also have to remain here." Chrom spoke from his position in front of the throne.

"Aw, really?" Lissa pouted, crossing her arms.

"If something happens to me, you may end up becoming the leader of our people. I know Lucina would help as much as she could, but as it stands, you would succeed me if I was no longer able to rule." There had been a discussion some time ago about this; the older Lucina believed that it would be better for this timeline's Ylisse if she did not succeed Chrom as exalt should something terrible befall him. She had said she would leave before the younger Lucina became aware enough to notice an older version of herself.

"Hmph. Okay. You know, we never got to ask her how many other future kids came back here. What if there are a lot more than we think?" Chrom shrugged.

"I would not be surprised if they turned up somewhere in our time. We will deal with them should they appear. Morgan, the nature of your next mission means that only a select few will be able to accompany you. Specifically, Ricken and Maribelle won't be coming – I'm sure you've heard why by now: they're planning to get married." He smiled, remembering that he had been the first one Ricken told about the engagement. The young mage had insisted countless times that this was the event that undeniably made him a man, that no one could treat him as a child ever again. Vaike sure seemed to think so, and was already beginning to plan the bachelor party.

"I've also just received word from Lucina and Kjelle that they've finished visiting Tiki. They have expressed their intention to go to Regna Ferox and train with the Khans. I'll let them know about the situation; they may know something about new Outrealm Gate openings. I don't think they'll be able to accompany you on your journey if you want to leave as soon as possible." While previous excursions to the Outrealms had only lasted a few days at most, the potential of this one lasting for much longer had put off most of the Shepherds. Miriel, Laurent, and Hale were on board, at least.

"That's fine. I think we're strong enough to handle ourselves. Even if it's just us four, I think we can make pretty good time in the Outrealms if we ask around." Morgan answered. The idea was pretty simple: go around places and see if anybody recognized her, or if anyone had seen an older version of herself guiding a bunch of nomads called Xenosouls. Simple, but no one had any clue where she was.

"Well, from our end, it should take hardly any time at all. I would suggest returning after six months if you are unable to find her. I think all of us would rather not suddenly see you all aged by decades." It was both a pleasant and disappointing surprise with Lucina for the ruler; as reassuring as it was to learn that she grew up to be a worthy leader, he also now knew exactly what the little girl sleeping down the hall would look like in about twenty years. This was also considering that Kjelle didn't quite exist yet in this timeline, which made him nervous every time he thought of it.

"Not a problem. It won't be just us four out there. Do you remember the rewards Old Hubba gave me for helping him? I still have those – the Einherjar cards. It looks like we'll finally be able to use them." Hale said, taking out the five cards he possessed. He had a copy of the legendary Marth, although fashioned from the younger Prince Marth rather than the Hero-King of legend. He didn't recognize the others and had never summoned them before, only calling upon Marth's help once to test commanding the Einherjar. His strength was about that of Lucina's before her use of the Master Seal; strong enough to hold his own alongside the Shepherds, but not so much that he could take the place of one of them.

"I see. Then I have every confidence that you will find the other Morgan and learn how to close the Gate before any more outstanding threats appear. If there is anything you need for the journey, let me know."

"Of course. Actually, we'll be needing a good amount of blank books to write in. We may be able to construct a map of the Outrealms, seeing as the Gates appear to consistently transport people from one location to another. No doubt we'll be taking a lot of notes as well."

"Yes, I imagine Mother and Laurent will be able to create an encyclopedia between them if we stay out there long enough!" Morgan imagined the two of them constantly writing things down, trying to balance being on the go with studying any peculiarities in the Outrealms. They would probably talk for days with her other self, too.

"Okay. I think we should get going. Come on, Morgan." Hale said, beginning to walk away.

"Be sure to bring me back some souvenirs!" Lissa said, waving at the tacticians as they left the throne room.

* * *

**A/N: Not the best of updates, I know, but I did say weekly updates at the very least, so here we are. I'll try to get out stuff more quickly, but in case that doesn't happen, expect another update a week from now. I don't foresee this story growing incredibly long, though from this point, it's not quite close to being done. If I had to estimate, we're getting close to halfway. As before, if you have any suggestions or comments, you know what to do.**


	7. Chapter 7

"He's leaving for the Outrealms, Henry. We have to beat him there and join his group before they disappear." The low, serious voice of a particular dark mage muttered as another dark mage looked over at her from his pot of steaming meat. He went back to the pot and took a deep breath over it, letting the smell of cooking animal fat permeate his nostrils.

"Oh, so Hale is finally going to look for that other daughter he has? Hehe, about time. Too bad we couldn't join him in killing those Risen. They never show up anymore! I've been looking for some undead body parts for months!" He noticed that his wife had begun looking for her traveling supplies, and then turned back to the pot. This wasn't for him – he preferred all of his meat cooked rare. He tried eating a piece of raw meat once, and while the blood was as fresh as he could imagine, it also made him sick for a week. He hadn't come up with a curse capable of getting rid of that problem yet.

"What? Does that mean I have to go, too?" A white-haired girl asked from the other room, walking in and noticing her mother gathering tomes and various odds and ends she used for her hexes.

"Yes, Noire. He's going to need help dispatching any _fool_ that gets in his way. We might also be able to help him find that other Morgan with our magic." Noire shuddered at the thought of going into the Outrealms. She'd never been there – what if some monster tackled her and ate her? What if she got surrounded by Risen and killed? Or captured by a band of outlaws roaming the lands beyond?

"Oh, I don't think I should go. I wouldn't be all that helpful. I'd just get in the way or probably get lost." Her father put his hand on her shoulder and laughed.

"Aw, but if you stay behind, you won't get to see any of the fun! Also, you still haven't learned how to cook. Who's gonna teach you if we're both gone? Unless you're okay with eating raw meat or vegetables. I dunno about that first one, though. Seems like humans don't take well to it. It's a shame! There's so much _blood_ in it!"

"Ahh! No! I'll go. Just give me a minute to get my things…" Noire said, going to another part of the house. Henry went back to the pot and took it off of the fire, letting the meat cool. Guess he'd just have to pack that up and have Noire eat it later.

"That's quite a clever hex you came up with, Tharja. Listening to Hale all those months after you confirmed he came back. You should teach me how to do that! Also, you don't happen to have a curse that would keep me from barfing back up raw meat, would you?" The dark mage smiled at the compliment. She knew the tactician would return after killing Grima. She was happy that he had come back so soon – and also unhappy that he hadn't come back sooner. She felt his life force radiate from southern Ylisse one day and immediately used the spell she had only finished after Grima had been slain. Both Henry and Noire had agreed that Hale might not have appreciated her running off to Ylisstol just to see him; the area they lived in was also prone to bandit attacks and the cursing opportunities were too good to pass up due to that.

"We can come up with that later. We have to leave right now. Noire! Just take your bow and your tomes! You're not going to need anything special for this trip!" Tharja yelled from the room, making Noire drop one of her tomes on the floor. She whimpered softly as she picked it up, knowing that she would inevitably have to fight something. Instinctively, she grabbed for the talisman that her mother had said she didn't really need. Her teeth clenched and she glared at the tome she was holding, suddenly possessed of a burning conviction.

"I WILL DESTROY ALL THAT STAND IN OUR WAY! OUR ENEMIES WILL BURN BEFORE US! THE OUTREALMS SHALL KNOW OF MY FURY!" Henry giggled at hearing his daughter's sudden personality shift. Surely the most entertaining non-blood-related curse he'd ever seen. At least, until Tharja had told him she removed it shortly after meeting her without telling Noire that she had done so. Now the object was just another trinket, with their daughter still believing it possessed some sort of power.

"That's the spirit! We'll make 'em bleed!" Henry responded. He took the meat out of the pot and sealed it in a bag. Tharja finished gathering her things and began to head for the door, with a smile on her face that Henry could only remember seeing on her when she was around Hale. He never did understand why she was so interested in him. Whatever the reason, it didn't change her loyalty to her family. That's all that mattered, really. He could handle the rest of her craziness.

* * *

"It really is just us, huh?" Morgan said as her family approached the Outrealm Gate. Chrom had given them plenty of supplies, and had suggested they start with the Outrealms they were familiar with first. The Gate lay less than half a mile away from them now, as large as a house and glowing with a silvery-blue aura.

"Yes, it would appear so. Visiting the worlds beyond us shall no doubt be an unrivaled experience. Mother, what do you remember from your previous excursions?" Laurent asked. His parents had been the only ones among them to have gone through the Gate before; his sister and he had only been found by them near the end of the war against Grima. As such, they didn't have the opportunity to go traipsing about in other worlds.

"The Outrealms that we had visited resembled alternate variants of the world we now currently inhabit. I distinctly recall there being an elderly man going by the name of Old Hubba, who has given Hale the Einherjar he currently possesses, an unusual type of Risen that attacked vegetation rather than humans, and an ancient castle containing priceless weapons guarded by thirty-six Deadlords. We did not have any sort of tactical advantage concerning the last scenario, so Hale had us retreat very quickly after seeing how ineffective our forces were at that time." A most unfortunate occurrence, indeed. That was a stark reminder that traveling in the worlds beyond this one had a countless number of unforeseeable dangers; afterwards everyone had agreed that it was better to focus on more local matters instead.

"Yeah, I don't think we'll be going there again. There wasn't anyone friendly in that area." Hale said. He looked back, just to make sure there wasn't anyone tailing them, and noticed three figures approaching them from the northwest. Two of them had white hair, one of them black… and two of them appeared to be Plegian dark mages. For some reason, a crow was perched on the shoulder of the dark mage with white hair.

"Hold! Look over there, everyone." Hale called. The family stopped and noticed the trio coming closer.

"Are they hostile?" Laurent asked, preparing to ready a spell. Hale noticed the crow and was suddenly reminded of the Plegian dark mage that had arrived in a cloud of crows, the identity of the female dark mage also becoming apparent to him now.

"No. Let's go over to them! I think they may want to join us!" The two riders guided their horses towards the three Plegians.

"Ahh! They saw us! I hope they don't think we're enemies!" Noire cried, hiding behind Henry. The crow flew away as the pair of horses carrying the Ylisseans approached.

"Nope! They would've totally attacked us by now if they did. Hehe, that would've been a funny way to die. Ripped apart by magic on accident! " Henry said, raising a finger as he imagined that scenario playing out in his mind.

"Henry! Tharja! It's good to see you two again!" Hale said as Miriel's horse approached them. He noticed that both of them wore rings on their fingers, where neither of them had worn such jewelry before. The girl behind Henry also looked quite a lot like the two of them, which had a very high chance of meaning… no. It couldn't be. He always thought Tharja would never settle for anyone but him, even though he was already married with children. But then again, Henry was probably the only person in the world he could imagine being compatible with her.

"Did you two get married?" Hale spurted, causing Miriel to raise an eyebrow and his children to look at each other questioningly. None of them had noticed the rings, he thought. Henry cackled and raised a fist at him, showing everyone his ring.

"Yep! So did you! We heard you came back from the dead and that you're now going to find that other Morgan in the Outrealms! It was Tharja's idea to bring us here, but I came along just to see what kind of mayhem goes on in other worlds."

"How did you hear about that? I thought all of our discussion never left Chrom's throne room." Hale asked, worried that a spy might have used the information to stage some sort of attack on Ylisstol.

"I always knew you'd come back. I could sense your life force returning to this world, and so I cast a curse on you that let me hear everything you did. You need our help, Hale. We're going with you." The tactician closed his eyes and shook his head after hearing that – now he almost wished it _was _a spy. Marrying Henry hadn't quelled her obsession with him at all. Miriel's only reaction was to push her glasses up, a behavior Hale had known her to do whenever she was getting frustrated with something.

"Well, that was a piece of information none of us desired to know. Father, are you sure we can trust these people? Neither of them appear to have full possession of their mental faculties." Laurent still held his Arcfire tome close to him.

"I'm so sorry about them! They're not that dangerous. I promise." Noire said from behind Henry. Hale sighed and turned back to Laurent.

"The girl's right. While they are definitely… different from most people, they can be trusted in battle. So," He looked back at Noire,

"You sure do look a lot like these two. I'm going to guess you're their daughter. Right?" She nodded and moved from behind her father, revealing her bow and magic tomes. On one of her hands was a ring identical to Tharja's, the telltale sign of a future child.

"Yes. I'm Noire. You must be Hale, and the people behind you your family. Please don't hurt us. We really do just want to help." Morgan found the situation very much like the ones her father had told her about in the past. Supposedly, Henry had shown up while the Shepherds were surrounded by Risen, literally being flown in by a bunch of crows. Tharja was once part of Gangrel's army, but had no desire to be there and was recruited by Chrom, showing that she had an unhealthy interest in her father that obviously had not changed. Laurent had never really met these two, since they weren't typically sent out to battle.

"Of course. We could use the extra help. Don't worry, Laurent. I'm sure Father knows these two well enough to trust them, even if they _are_ a little strange." Laurent finally put his tome away at his sister's words.

"Well, since you already know what we're out here for, that saves me the trouble of explaining it to you. Let's go, then. We can't waste any time." Hale jumped back on Miriel's horse and the seven went into the Outrealm Gate, intent on going to the place where they had first met Old Hubba. Perhaps if they found him again, he might know something about the Xenosoul Morgan.

* * *

"No, he's dead. Like a doornail. Been that way for about a week now. They just buried the poor sap a few days ago." A villager explained to the party, which shocked everyone but Tharja and Henry.

"How'd he die? Was it bloody? Did Risen kill him?" Henry asked, with the perennial smile on his face creeping out the villager.

"We don't think so. Haven't been any of those things around in years. No, we think it was some kind of assassin. Old Hubba was never liked much by a lot of folk, but I didn't think anybody would have the gall to actually off him. The thing is, whoever it was, they stole all of his Einherjar. That's probably what they were really after, I think. Hubba was probably an unfortunate consequence of that theft. I can't imagine someone around here would dislike him enough to go after him, though."

"That's horrible. Well, um… I know this might sound strange, but have you seen a woman that looks like me, but older?" Morgan asked. The villager turned his head towards her and then leaned back, surprised.

"Well, I'll be. You _do_ look familiar. Margaret? Was that her name?"

"Morgan. You've seen her? When?" The villager thought for a few seconds.

"Some years ago. Before _his_ group came here and saved us from that fight between the Einherjar." He pointed to Hale, whom he remembered as the man giving orders to the army.

"Yes, she was the one who gave Old Hubba his first Einherjar cards. She tried to explain to him that he couldn't just play around with them, but he never listened. Wore a white robe with gold on it, or something. Heck if I know where she is now, though. Only stayed a few weeks and then left with her group." Morgan's shoulders sank. Her other self had already been here, which probably meant she wasn't going to come back to these realms anytime soon. Right? There had to have been more realms than anybody could explore in a lifetime, and this place wasn't that remarkable aside from Hubba, so why would she want to return?

"Oh. Well, thanks for your help. We're trying to find her because our world is in danger. Her group has what we need to save it." The villager nodded and looked back at the town.

"I see. If you all need a place to stay, we've got enough rooms at the inn for all of you. Heck, I'm sure the innkeeper would appreciate the business. Might sound surprising considering there are Gates all over the place around here, but we don't get too many visitors."

"Are there any juicy animals around here?" Henry asked, raising his finger. The villager sighed at the dark mage and pointed out to a forest close by.

"Hunting grounds are out there. Help yourself. If that's not your thing, the inn also has a restaurant. If you all don't mind, I think I should be going. I've got errands to run."

"Wait. Just one more question." Hale said.

"Do you think we could look at Hubba's old house?" The villager shrugged.

"I don't see why you'd want to do that, but as long as you don't take anything, I think you could get away with it. I think they were going to start cleaning the place out so they could sell it, or something."

"Okay. Thanks. Sorry for taking up your time."

"No problem." The villager turned and left. Morgan looked at her father, wondering what he wanted to do at Hubba's house.

"What do you hypothesize you'll find at that abandoned house, Father? Some clue as to who killed him?" Laurent asked.

"No. If the only thing that was taken from the house was the set of Einherjar, then it's possible Hubba might've had something else around that would help us find Morgan. Perhaps she left him something else. It can't hurt to look. Now that we know she's not here, we don't have to stay here that much longer. These people are willing to house us for a night, so let's take them up on that offer. We don't know the next time we'll be able to do that."

"So you'll rent us the rooms. Okay! Come on, Tharja. Let's go kill some animals and eat 'em! Noire, you should come. Maybe this time you can hit one of them in the eye!" Henry said, rubbing his hands together and chuckling. Doubtless he was already imagining one of Noire's arrows skewering some poor creature's eyeball, Hale thought. The girl shivered and tightly held her bow in her hands.

"But… that's so brutal. Why can't I just go with Hale and his family to the restaurant?" Her mother grabbed her shoulder and made her face her.

"No. You're going with us. If I have to go with him on one of his hunting trips, so do you." She briefly looked at Hale as she said this. She had no problem with Henry's hunting per se – but she'd be damned if her daughter was going to spend time with Hale when she wasn't. Noire went for her talisman and took hold of it, suddenly glaring at her mother and gripping the bow very tightly.

"THEN WE SHALL RUTHLESSLY SLAUGHTER THOSE PATHETIC LITTLE BEASTS! FATHER! YOU WILL WITNESS MY SKILLS DO EXACTLY WHAT YOU HAVE HOPED FOR! COME! I WILL WAIT NO LONGER!" She shouted, running past Tharja and into the forest. Morgan had covered her mouth in surprise, Laurent was shaking his head in disbelief, Miriel had raised an eyebrow in intrigue, and Hale felt sorry for the daughter of those two.

"Does that… happen often?" He spoke slowly, his words tentative. Tharja let out one of her sinister laughs, and Henry waved a hand at them, dismissing Noire's outburst as if it was nothing.

"Yep! She's really something, isn't she?" He said. Tharja turned to watch her daughter running into the forest and commented on it.

"I do like that she can be aggressive, but she needs to learn how to control it. She's _my_ daughter. There's no reason she should be so scared of everything." Hale looked at Miriel, who read his mind and affirmed what he was thinking with her look: Noire most certainly _did_ have a reason for being that way, but neither of them were about to tell Tharja that.

"Well, I suppose we will see you when you're done with your hunting trip. You know where we'll be."

"This'll be great. Let's go." Henry started running into the forest after his daughter. Tharja chuckled again and turned back to look at Hale one last time.

"Don't you leave without us. We didn't come all this way for nothing. Goodbye now." She said the last part in a voice attempting to sound sweet, which only made Hale sigh with embarrassment and Miriel push her glasses up to her face again.

"Why did you let them come with us again, Father?" Laurent asked. The tactician turned and walked past them towards the inn with his head down.

"I'd said it's because they know how to fight, but… oh, gods. We might have to return back to Ylisse a lot sooner than in six months. Let's just go check in, okay?"

* * *

**A/N: So there's the weekly update. As Hale is able to use tomes as a Trickster, so is Noire able to use dark magic as an Archer. She's not really all that good at it, though – an E rank in it, I'd say.**

**Good news for those of you who want more than just a weekly update: I've decided to get down to business and start putting those writing gears into overdrive. For the next week, expect updates every other day. That means you'll see a new chapter on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday this week. As always, if you've got an opinion on how the story's going, let me know. Fireminer, I appreciate your review. Thanks for writing it. Hopefully I've done a bit better this time around.**


	8. Chapter 8

"I was pleasantly surprised by how well my sleep was last night. It was quite refreshing. How did the rest of you fare?" Laurent asked the party as the sun rose outside the inn's window. Noire sighed and looked at Morgan, who was busy ordering something for breakfast.

"She tosses and turns so much. It was hard for me to stay asleep. But I can't really blame her for that – at least she didn't give me any nightmares last night." She watched her father explain to the cook that he wanted his sausage barely cooked, that he should make it as juicy as possible. The cook shrugged and did as he was told, content to make it however Henry wanted as long as he was getting paid for it.

"My most recent slumber was of an average quality compared to the others." Miriel said.

"Decent. I had… quite an interesting dream last night." Tharja smiled. No one dared ask what it was she dreamt.

"Good enough to travel another day." Hale said, drinking some milk.

"I see. Well, it's good to hear that we're all feeling adequate. I suppose we will be going to the realm with the vegetarian Risen next?"

"Yes. I doubt Morgan's group would want to stay in the area with the Deadlords for very long."

"Vegetarian Risen? Ha ha, that's great! I think I'll finally be able to get my hands on those body parts!" Henry said as he sat down with his plate of rare meat. Morgan sat next to Hale, her plate full of eggs and bacon.

"What do you propose to do with those? How would you even manage to get them? Risen decompose into a purple mist when damaged." Laurent asked the dark mage. He giggled and put a piece of sausage on his fork, showing it to him.

"Yeah. And just like this sausage is full of greasy grease, I bet you Risen limbs are full of dark magic! Who knows what kinds of curses I could make from that? I could capture the mist and study it."

"I'm surprised. That is actually a decent suggestion. Well, disregarding the curses. I don't believe there has ever been a comprehensive study on the materials Risen are actually composed of, at least that I'm aware of. Your knowledge of dark magic would be put to good use in such a task." Laurent adjusted his glasses and took a sip of his coffee.

"What would you store the mist in? Did you bring any containers for that?" Morgan asked, salting her food.

"I thought I'd bottle the stuff."

"It's possible that the people from that realm may need our help again. The last time Miriel and I were there, we were told by an Anna that the Risen were a recurring threat to their crops. Those Risen aren't hostile to humans, but if you attack them, they _will_ fight back. Since all of us have some form of ranged attack, we won't have to worry about any of them possessing the Counter enchantment."

How in the world it was possible for the undead to have those kinds of enchantments, he didn't know. The tactician was capable of noticing the magical aura of individuals with special abilities or attributes. He had first seen such an aura around Lissa – he later named the corresponding ability Miracle, after an attack he was sure would've killed her had been dulled to leave her barely alive. He despised the Counter ability – it disgusted him that an otherwise hapless enemy could magically inflict the same wound to its attacker when hit. Fortunately, the spell only worked when the attacker was close by, so archers and mages weren't affected.

"Father, you have to teach me about those intricacies. You once told me that you could see all of those things at a distance. Lately, I've been able to see them too – but I don't know what they mean." Morgan ate quickly, and had finished her food before anyone else.

"Oh? You should have told me earlier. I wrote down a list of what each sign means. I can give it to you and explain the details on our way over to the next realm." Laurent looked at his sister, choosing to keep his next thought to himself. It must have been a hereditary trait he had not the fortune to have inherited; at no point in his life could he remember seeing any way to determine the passive and active abilities of a person at a glance. From training with Hale, he _had_ learned how to cast a synergistic spell Hale called the Rally Spectrum, which boosted all the abilities of nearby allies, a step up from his mother's Rally Magic spell, which only boosted offensive magic capabilities. Yet that recognition eluded him.

"That'd be great. Do you think you'll have to use the Einherjar against those Risen?"

"I might, depending on how many there are. Actually, that would probably be a good idea; I could use the practice in commanding them. I've only ever summoned Prince Marth before. I haven't even taken a good look at the others. Let's see." He took out the five cards he kept in his coat and examined them. The first one was Marth, with the words _Marth, Wielder of Falchion and Prince of Altea_ written on the bottom. He decided to read the rest of the warriors' names and titles out loud.

"Nino, the Mage Prodigy. Elincia, Queen of Crimea and Wielder of Amiti. Roy, Prince of Pherae and Wielder of the Sword of Seals. Micaiah, Mage of Light and Heart of the Dawn Brigade. Well, two of them are nobles, and the other two also seem like they're quite powerful. I guess we'll have to see for ourselves what they're capable of when we get there."

* * *

The party exited the Outrealm Gate into a field of crops, underneath a cloudy sky in what felt like the middle of the day. Hale looked around and noticed the familiar landmarks he had noted from his previous visit to this area; the silo full of grain at the edge of the field that the Risen ignored in favor of the easily available crops they now stood in the midst of, and the village on the opposite side of the farmhouse next to that silo. There didn't seem to be any Risen about, so he directed everyone towards the village.

"Aw, no Risen? That's a bummer. I want my mist!" Henry complained, pulling off a tomato from one of the crops and throwing it at the ground, smashing it open on impact.

"Hey! Was that necessary?" Hale sighed as he looked at the splattered remains of the harmless fruit.

"Don't do that, Henry. The last thing we need is to anger these folk by abusing their crops." The dark mage pouted for a moment and then resumed smiling, having been pleased by the red juices that had spurted from the tomato after he'd thrown it. Not exactly the type of blood he was used to, but it was kinda close.

The group went into the village and began asking around about Morgan. Unfortunately, no one in this realm seemed to be aware of her. No one had seen Henry throw the tomato, either, which relieved Hale.

"C'mon, Laurent. There seems to be a travelling merchant towards the back entrance to the village. Let's go ask him if he knows anything." Morgan led her brother to the table that was set up right beside the entrance. The young, red-haired merchant noticed them approaching and turned to face them, putting an index finger on his chin and winking at her.

"Hey, now! The name's Anthony. What can I do for you, lovely lady?" The young tactician chuckled, blushing a little from his greeting. Laurent adjusted his glasses and decided to speak first.

"Would you happen to have seen an older woman resembling my sister in this vicinity?" He indicated Morgan, who was still smiling at the familiar-looking merchant. Indeed, he looked quite a bit like the Annas that roamed the world back home. Perhaps he was a rare male individual in their family business? Or was the prevalence of women named Anna unique to their world, and the Outrealms featured a slew of males named Anthony instead?

"Oh, you can bet your bottom dollar that I know who you're talking about, and yeah, I've definitely seen her in person. She's a good woman – and a _great_ customer. Now, I don't mean to be rude, but I was hoping you were here to browse my wares. Go ahead and take a look at what I've got; you won't find better prices anywhere else!" Anthony moved his arms out over the items he had placed on the table. Laurent looked over them and noticed a particular tome he had never seen before: it had a white cover, and was inscribed with a golden symbol that looked like a twinkling star on the front.

"You've seen her? Do you know where she is?" Morgan asked, taking a look at a neatly polished silver sword that lay on the table next to a lance with a severely sharp edge – known as a Killer Lance because of its propensity to critically injure those unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of it. Anthony cocked his head and scanned the young Morgan carefully; she had to be no older than fourteen, by his estimate. The Morgan he was familiar with was at least twenty years older. It was completely possible that another version of her had ventured to the Outrealms, but why were these two looking for her? The mage next to him had begun skimming through the light magic tome. Xenosoul Morgan never said anything about having siblings. That would've made for an interesting story, if he'd only thought to ask.

"Hmm, I might. You should buy something, Morgan. I think I'd be more inclined to tell you then." He winked at her again, surprising her and Laurent as neither of them had mentioned her name.

"If that's the case, then I will buy this tome." Laurent pointed to the white book and began to reach for his gold pouch. He hadn't expected to use his own money to purchase anything, but his foresight was now beginning to pay off. Finally, he would have the opportunity to present Miriel with a subject of study that neither of them had any experience in. The concepts behind the spells in this book were utterly foreign to him, and it suddenly hit him that no one back home knew light magic at all, despite there being plenty of dark mages. What had caused _that?_

"No problem. That'll be 1,500 gold. What about you, Morgan? I think you have your eye on that sword there. It's been specially forged by the smiths in Kalsoba – best ones I've ever seen, and I've been to a _lot_ of realms. This thing will last you a long time, much longer than your average silver weapon. It's 1,200 gold – a special offer that I'm making just for _you._" He took his finger off of his chin and pointed at her. Normally, he'd charge double for that kind of weapon, but the rest of that cost would be paid by learning whether or not this Morgan was the real deal.

"Wow, really? Sure!" She handed him the gold and took the sword, examining it closely. Normally, silver swords tended to take about three hundred actual strikes before breaking. She wanted to guess that this particular sword, having been forged for extra durability, would last at least twice as long. Anthony was certainly right about the weapon's quality – there were no imperfections in it at all, not a single scratch. Although it wasn't any heavier than a typical sword of its caliber, it had a certain fullness to it that told her his words were true.

"Thanks a million. So, if you really _are_ a younger version of _her_…" Anthony began, but was cut off by a girl's shouting from the distance.

"Morgan! Morgan, they're coming! The Risen have come back and are going for the fields!" Noire was waving her hands back and forth, trying to get the tactician's attention. She looked towards the archer and then back to Anthony, who pointed towards the other side of town with his other index finger on his chin.

"I guess that's your cue, huh? Go ahead and take care of those guys. I'm not going anywhere. I'll ask you my question when you get back. Tell me how well the sword works!" Morgan began to run off with Noire, Laurent following behind.

"Okay! I'll see you later! Thanks for the weapon!"

* * *

**A/N: A few minutes short of midnight where I live, so it's still technically a Tuesday update. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's thought about what a male version of Anna would look like. As stated before, the next update will come to you on Thursday. Reviews are still welcome, though to save you some time, I am aware that my updates could stand to be a little longer. **


	9. Chapter 9

"I could've sworn I sprayed these crops with a repellant. It was working for weeks before… what could have drawn the Risen through it?" The farmer sighed as he watched one of the creatures in the distance attempting to eat an ear of corn. The man that had led the army that drove the Risen away previously just so happened to be in town, and so he had called on his help. Suddenly, the possibility clicked in his mind.

"That's it. The scent must have carried over the repellant somehow. I bet you one of the tomatoes fell off and went bad." Hale glared at Henry, who was about to spill the beans and said something before he did.

"Don't. Say. Anything. Let's just go get rid of these Risen. We'll also make sure we'll get what you're looking for." The tactician led the dark mage away from the farmer and towards the fields, followed by the rest of the party. He quickly surveyed the area and saw twenty-three Risen, seven of which had the Counter aura. Half of them possessed the Underdog aura, which granted enhanced abilities when its bearer was significantly weaker than its attacker.

"Okay! Split up and destroy these things from back to front! Be sure to only attack them from a distance! Like I said, these Risen won't attack until you hit them. Neither will the surrounding Risen decide to focus you if you attack one of them. Go!" Hale said, and the party began to move out towards the end of the field. True to his word, the monsters completely ignored them as they passed by, far too distracted by their mindless pursuit of the crops.

"Morgan. Look at the Risen closest to us." This particular one had both auras on it, which appeared as a split between orange and indigo, split like oil and water.

"Okay. What about it?" She could see the creature ripping through the leaves of a tomato plant, trying to grab hold of one of the fruits. On its top half was an orange tint, while below the waist it seemed to have a deeper bluish color than normal.

"You can see how it has two auras, right?" She nodded as the Risen snatched a tomato and took a huge bite out of it, looking back at her with its glowing, red eyes.

"Yes. It's kinda orange from its head to about its waist, and below that, it's a dark blue."

"Do you know what those colors mean?" Morgan nodded, recalling the information that her father had written down on the list he'd given her to look over while they were traveling towards the Gate.

"The orange means Counter, and the indigo means Underdog, right?"

"Very good. Can you tell me if this particular Risen's Underdog ability will kick in if you attack it?" She squinted at the Risen, who was still munching on the tomato. It was clearly incapable of understanding what they were talking about, as it made no indication that it would fight or run after hearing the possibility it would be attacked. It was quite bulky, its gold, gooey body looking larger than anybody in town. It didn't look like it would go down in a single hit from her magic.

"I don't think so. It looks too strong."

"I don't think so, either. But let's test that. Go ahead and attack it. Give it your best shot." Morgan nodded and took out a tome of Thoron. She took a breath and charged up the bolt of lightning, letting it fly and piercing the Risen's chest with it, forcing it to drop the rest of the tomato and let out a scratchy, dry noise that sounded like annoyance. It dropped into a puddle of goo and moved towards her.

"Not even close." She said as the creature reformed in front of her, jumping back as it tried to rake her with its claws.

"And another to end you!" Hale shouted as he released a gust of Rexcalibur upon the Risen, sending it flying and dissolving into mist. He looked towards the other side of the field and saw Henry running around with a bottle, capturing the mist that came off of Tharja's targets. The guy looked absolutely giddy, and that was considering he had a smile on his face most of the time – Hale found it more disturbing than anything.

"So, did you notice anything different happen with that fight?" He asked Morgan. She shrugged.

"I don't think so. Would it have moved faster or something if Underdog had activated?"

"A little – its aura would have spread all over its body if it had. That's how you can tell with the less obvious abilities. Now, before I forget… it's time to actually call upon these guys." Hale pulled the Einherjar cards from his coat and held them out in front of him.

"Warriors from another realm! I call upon your assistance! Lend us your strength to drive our enemies away!" With his words, the five cards began to glow before they flew from his hand and landed on the ground in front of him, forming into the five warriors depicted on them. They all appeared before him, each with their weapons in hand. Morgan saw that each one had a blue light faintly emanating from them.

"Behind you are undead creatures with glowing, red eyes that seek to ravage the livelihood of these innocent people. I would like you to destroy them all! However, some of them have a spell cast on them that will harm you if you attack them directly. Follow my commands, and attack only the ones I call out!"

"Yes, sir!" Each of them responded curtly. It reminded Morgan of how people that didn't know her father acted when he gave them orders. He may not have been the most physically imposing man around, but people would listen to him if he wanted them to.

"Nino. Attack the Risen at the edge of the field on my left. Micaiah, attack the one directly in front of us." She saw that each of these Risen had the Counter aura surrounding them. Exactly what she would've done if she was the one giving the orders, now that she knew what it meant. The women immediately moved to carry out Hale's commands.

"Roy, attack the Risen on Micaiah's left. Prince Marth, you will aid him. Finally, Elincia, go behind them and deal with the Risen consuming the corn. Go!" Without another word, the three spiritual warriors obeyed. He had sent the swordsmen both after a bulky Risen that lacked the Counter aura, but possessed the Underdog one. He sensed that if either he or Morgan attacked it, its ability would kick in and make it harder to attack. Everyone seemed to be doing their jobs very well – the first attack had more than halved the number of Risen.

Within the next twenty minutes, the last of the Risen had been destroyed, with Henry managing to fill at least four jars with Risen mist. There had been some clear damage to the crops, but far less than there would've been if they hadn't shown up when they did. The Einherjar noticed that all their current enemies had been vanquished, and so turned to Hale for further instruction.

"Very good! We are victorious over the Risen! I thank you all for your help and bid you return where you came!" Each of the warriors closed their eyes and the blue glow that normally lit them up overtook them, consuming them and reverting each to their card forms, which returned to his hand. No one had suffered any lasting injuries – Hale was even able to use his own healing staff on the Einherjar a few times, as they actually took damage from the slow, predictable Risen. That was probably due to them never having seen enemies like that before and also not being as strong as the Shepherds, he reasoned.

"Hehehe, that was great! Just think of all the stuff I'm gonna be able to do now that I have all these pieces of Risen!" Henry laughed, which made Laurent adjust his glasses and frown.

"I'd rather you narrow your focus to determining exactly what that mist is comprised of. Do not undertake any sort of research that will endanger another person. If you please, I would also like to receive regular reports from you about the composition of the mist. If there is any way I can assist with that, please inform me of the opportunity." His mother looked to Hale.

"I believe your time would be better allocated to the study of the light magic tome you procured from the merchant earlier. I am certain Hale and Morgan would also like to be educated on this unfamiliar type of magic as well."

"Oh! That's right! We have to go back to him! He said he was going to tell me where the other Morgan was." Morgan immediately started riding back into town on her horse, without even giving Laurent a chance to hop on. Miriel sighed and got on top of her own horse, Laurent sitting down behind her.

"Her impulses occasionally dull her awareness. Yet this often also means her excitement is not without merit. Come! Let us ascertain if this merchant truly knows of her other self's location." She commanded the horse to move into town, the rest of the party following behind.

* * *

**A/N:** **Well, darn. A little late on the update, and short to boot. Still, trying what I can to get things done. You'll still see an update around Saturday. I think I'll cut back a little next week so I won't be rushing updates out.**


	10. Chapter 10

"Anthony! I'm back!" Morgan said as she jumped off of her horse. He cocked his head and chuckled a bit. This girl had the same zest about her the older Morgan had. Another sign she was the real thing. But there was one aspect of her that should've been the same no matter what personality she may have had.

"Welcome back. Did that sword end up working out for you?"

"Yeah! It felt great. So what did you want to ask me?" Miriel's horse arrived at the stall, allowing them to dismount and listen to the question.

"There was a birthmark the other Morgan had that you should also have. That is, you have a patch of brown skin on your upper left arm that looks like a swirl. Not only that, but it tends to itch when you sleep, which makes you toss and turn trying to scratch it. Is that correct? " Anthony pointed towards her arm, which was covered. Miriel smiled at the description of her daughter's behavior – she had seen exactly what the merchant described happen one time when she came to her tent and found her rolling around on the ground, having fallen asleep studying one of Hale's tactics books and subsequently attempting to reach for her left arm. Only after waking her up and pulling up her sleeve did Miriel find out about the itchy birthmark, which unfortunately did not seem to have any foreseeable cure.

"How did you… you must really have met her, then."

"Would you mind letting me see it, just to be sure?" Morgan nodded and pulled up her sleeve, exposing the brown swirl on her upper arm.

"Well, I'll be. That's it, alright. So, you want to find yourself? Not a problem. She's in Kalsoba, the realm that your sword came from. It's actually not too difficult to reach from here. Leave town out this way and travel in a straight line for about an hour. You'll find the gate at the end of that. Try not to diverge from that line. The plains around here tend to look pretty identical, and the gate is actually _in_ the ground, not floating above it like most gates, so it won't stand out like the others." He noticed the rest of her group approaching, immediately seeing another Trickster with black hair. The outfit didn't suit him. That guy didn't even have the hat.

"Thanks. Oh, hey! Father! I know where we need to go now!" She ran over to the badly-dressed man, which made Anthony scratch his head in confusion.

"Father?" He said, pointing at Hale. He was also trailed by two dark mages and a timid-looking archer.

"Yes. Your surprise is to be expected. Morgan and I had both traveled from alternate timelines and have been residing with a younger variant of him for some time now. You may have already deduced that the woman behind me is my mother, which would have been a correct conjecture as we share a great degree of resemblance." Laurent explained to the merchant.

"Great! Lead the way, then."

"You're Morgan's father, huh? What's your name?" Xenosoul Morgan, as much as she was willing to speak about the realms, magic, tactics, Einherjar, or clothing design, never mentioned her family unless asked. Even then, she never spent that much time talking about them. Anthony wondered what might have happened to her to ignore such an important thing.

"Hale. Thanks for telling us where to find her. Hey, you wouldn't happen to have a sister named Anna, would you?"

"Yes, I do. Many of them, in fact. I suppose you've met one of them before. Well, then you know how excellent my goods are! After all, both your children bought something from me and looked very happy with their purchases." He moved his hand to show the tactician the rest of his wares.

"I've still got some great stuff for you. All of you should take a look! Even you two – no reason you should leave for Kalsoba without the best supplies in the realm." Anthony looked back at Laurent and Morgan. That would explain the wordy mage's black hair.

"What about dark magic tomes? Or better yet, some Reeking Boxes? I _love_ those things!" Henry walked up to the stall and tried to look inside the tent. Surely the most cheerful practitioner of dark magic he'd ever seen, Anthony thought. The gloomy woman next to him looked far more the part.

"Fairly certain I've got both in stock. Let me bring out the tomes for you."

"So, where are we going? How we will reach the next realm?" Hale asked Morgan.

"It's about an hour ride from this side of town. Anthony told me that we should travel as close to a straight line as possible."

"I see. Anthony, huh? Clever name. Now I have to know: are all the boys born to your family given that name and raised in the family business?" He asked the merchant as he came out with a stack of purple and black books, which he laid out on the table for Henry to look at.

"Actually, our bloodline seems to give us more girls than boys. Most of the male individuals within my family are either married in or look like those married guys. In order to preserve the familiarity, only those boys that have the look are raised as merchants. I really don't know how many of us there are, but I'd say for every Anthony you see, there are at least eight Annas. Anyways. Enough about me. So, have you found something you like?" The merchant looked to Henry, who was giggling at the contents of a particular black book with a dark, brownish moon on the front. Tharja had also begun to peruse the tomes and seemed satisfied with what she was seeing as well. Noire merely stood behind them, sighing.

"Yep! Why don't they have stuff this good back home? I'll take it." He started to rummage through his cloak for his gold. Tharja narrowed her eyes at a particular section in the book she was skimming and then looked at Hale, quietly laughing.

"Very nice! It seems like your world doesn't have a very broad selection of tomes. Luna isn't exactly common, but there isn't a single copy of that where you come from? Oh, I think I might just go _there_ next." He took Henry's gold and noticed another stack of it being placed down next to it by the gloomy woman.

"That's for this." She held up the violet book she had been reading. Anthony gladly took it – he hadn't been able to unload that one for months. It wasn't a combat tome, which meant that most folks that even took an interest in dark magic ignored it. Rather, it was a treatise on hexes and curses with language that, while being incomprehensible to him, was described as having devastating effects if properly utilized. Something about mind control, if he remembered correctly…

"Thanks. Anything else?"

"No. This is enough." Tharja said, putting away the curse tome.

"I've got plenty to do now between this and the Risen mist!" Henry rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

"And you all? Are you sure there's nothing else I can interest you in?"

"I don't think so. We already had a lot with us to begin with. We ought to get going while it's still light out. Come on, everyone." Hale got up on Morgan's horse, and led the group away from Anthony's stall and out towards the Gate. The merchant watched them leave, thinking about Xenosoul Morgan's shrouded past and then about what he would sell to the younger Morgan's realm.

"Hey! What are _you_ doing here?" A familiar voice broke his train of thought, and he came face-to-face with an upset-looking Anna.

"Oh, come on, did you really have to ask me that? What's it look like I'm doing?" He rolled his eyes.

"Not _that! _You show up here and you don't even have the decency to let me know you're in town? You know you can't hold all your trade secrets from _me._" She poked him in the shoulder with her index finger. He didn't recognize the way she spoke – yet another relative of his that he wasn't aware of until now. Not terribly surprising, but this one… she seemed like a pain compared to the others.

"I'm sorry I made a sale where you didn't. Our family knows me as Valentine. What about you? It seems that we've never met before."

"Juliana. Listen, you can't stay here. This town's mine. Go find your own. You know the rules, don't you?"

"Of course! I didn't know you were here. Besides, I was planning on leaving anyway. My latest customers tipped me off to a primo delecto place where I'll be making a killing!" Anna Juliana frowned momentarily, but then winked at her male counterpart and returned her index finger to her chin.

"Sounds great. Where were they going, anyway? There's nothing out that way but fields and forests." Anthony returned the rest of the dark magic tomes to his tent.

"Oh, you didn't know either, huh. There's a secluded gate out there that leads to Kalsoba. Have you heard of it? It's called the Realm of the Sky." She looked surprised. A way to the Sky World? Here?

"No. Kalsoba's really that close to us, huh? I hear it's the only place where we don't have any luck selling anything. Its goods are reputed to be top notch, completely above and beyond what most realms are capable of producing. Is that why they were headed there?" Valentine had managed to sell stuff to those people even though he knew they were going to Kalsoba. He must not have told them how good the items there were in order to make a profit off of them – which was exactly what she would've done.

"They were looking for someone living there. Come on, Juliana. Give me some credit. I wasn't about to spoil my chances of selling something by telling them what it was like. Of course, there's that _other thing_ I didn't tell them that'll probably stick in their minds for far longer… but hey, surprises are fun, right?"

* * *

**A/N: I don't quite think the accelerated update schedule worked out as well as I had hoped. So, in the interest of producing better-quality content for you all, I'm going back to the regular weekly schedule starting tomorrow (to clarify, the next update will be on July 7). There is still the possibility of there being more than one update during the week, but you can always count on there being one on Sunday from now on. Want to review? I think you know the drill by now. Let me hear it. I can take it, lol.**


	11. Chapter 11

"So you're taking a team with you this time?" Katrina asked Tyler, her arms crossed as the two sat across from each other at the table in Tyler's living room.

"I've finally found what I've been searching for. Once I have the ability to command any Einherjar on the battlefield, no one will be able to stop us from executing our revenge." He noticed that she wasn't looking him in the eye as she typically did.

"Listen, if you want to try and kill them yourself one last time, I've got no problem with that. It won't change what I'm about to do. If you succeed, great – bring me their bodies and we'll savor the victory together. If not, then those Ylisseans will suffer our wrath as well." She looked back at him.

"Okay. One last attempt. Based on the intel your scouting team gathered, I think I can figure out a way to kill them. I know you're getting sick of me asking, but why won't you come with me? Would you really give up the opportunity to see her try to plead for mercy? You, of all people, should want to watch her spirit break before your eyes. What's your problem? Do you still feel something for her, Tyler? Is that why you've been holding back?" Tyler slammed his fast on the table and stood up, glaring at Katrina.

"No! If I still loved her, would I have let you try to kill her as many times as you have? Would I not be with her, trying to protect her from you and everyone else? You're right. I'm the one who should be leading these assassination attempts. Hell, the both of them would probably be dead already if I had. But then what, Katrina? So we kill them and satisfy the call of justice. We still don't have a home to go back to. This place is a dump. None of us deserve this crap. If we want to live a decent life here in the Outrealms, we need some way of protecting what little we have. It's not all about _her._ It's about the rest of our lives after she's _gone_, too." Katrina stood up and said nothing, the two staring at each other in silence for a moment before she spoke again.

"Fine. You go do what you want. I'll be back." She went back to her room to grab her things, leaving Tyler standing at the table. That woman had always hated Mina, ever since they had first met as teenagers. Her grudges against her ran deep, her desire to see her suffer stronger than anyone else's. She truly would endure going hungry, homeless, and broke if it meant she could break Mina's spirit. She didn't understand that the others, though willing to bring Mina down, were not possessed of the same conviction. All they really wanted was a home.

Katrina came out of her room wearing her sword, bow, staff, and cloak. She headed for the door without saying a word to him, but stopped as Tyler spoke again.

"Don't get yourself killed, Katrina. I'm not about to lose anybody out here." She turned her head towards him and looked him in the eyes one more time, seeing the honesty behind them. Still too nice for his own good, even when he wanted someone dead. Would've been admirable if it hadn't delayed Mina's death for so long.

"Worry more for yourself than for me." She left the rundown house, warping to the Gate that lead to Ylisse. She looked up at the sky, which was gray with thick storm clouds, and briefly stopped to feel the cold winds caress her skin. It reminded her of that fateful afternoon, when she witnessed the first attack. There hadn't been enough healing magic in the entire city to fix the wounds those people suffered. It satisfied every burning muscle in her body to hear _she_ was responsible for it, since that now meant her hatred was justified. Tyler had the proof with him. He carried it on him to remind him of the truth, but it seemed that even with that, he still cared more about the people than about his own desires.

"Of course you're right, you hopeless romantic. But you _did_ once love her, no matter what you say." She tied her cloak tightly and stepped through the Gate.

* * *

The party had found the Gate behind a layer of rocks, tall trees, and a bear that unfortunately had to be killed. Noire was still teary-eyed from seeing the animal go down at her parents' hands. They went through the gate and came out at the base of a hill covered with greenery, and all were awed at what they saw.

"I'm not dreaming, right? Father, we _are_ seeing the same thing, right?" Morgan looked at Hale, who was grinning from the sight. In the distance, up at the top of the hill, was a city with tall, tall buildings and wide-open spaces. What was remarkable was not the city itself, but the inhabitants: individuals with wings of all different shapes and colors were flying about, as if they were giant fairies in a world of their own.

"Oh, would you look at these! More Groundhogs!" An older man's voice said from above them. They looked up to see a plump, middle-aged father with large, brown wings like that of an eagle's floating above them. Two little brown-haired girls with ivory-white, rapidly-oscillating hummingbird wings flitted down to see them, giggling at the strange wingless people that had come through the Gate.

"Now don't make fun of them, you two. Come on, your mother wants us to get her that medicine so she can get better. Let's go." Hale burst into a fit of laughter as the flying people left, marveled by what had just taken place. This was the last thing he had expected to see coming across the Gate – a place where his childhood dream was a reality.

"The existence of a world where humans can fly is truly remarkable. However, Hale… I believe your reaction to this is, to put it bluntly, hilarious." Miriel couldn't help but smile at her husband, although Laurent was looking away, embarrassed at seeing his father act like a little kid. Yes, of course it was impressive to find a realm where humans were part bird. Was it truly necessary to act so childishly in their presence, though?

"Ha! Flying people. What's next, people that can burrow like moles? Wonder if they bleed the same as we do. We should check that." Henry said, raising a finger. Tharja grabbed one of his Reeking Boxes, holding it while looking around at the lush, fruitful landscape.

"Do you suppose the Risen around here would also have wings? I know we're here to find Morgan, but we'd be doing these people a favor by getting rid of any Risen that might be here." She looked to Hale, who had calmed down a little, but was still smiling. Seeing him smile at her like that suddenly made her realize something: if she had wings, perhaps he would like her more. No, if _he_ had wings that _she_ gave him… he'd always smile at her like that. Henry and Noire could get them too – and that new book of curses she just bought could help her achieve that.

"Let's get into town first, okay? I have _got_ to see that city! Come on!"

An hour later and Hale was still aglow with joy at the city of Volstead, one of Kalsoba's Grounded Cities. He turned to his unofficial tour guide, a blonde-haired, green-eyed young man with six ruby-colored, fairy-like wings called Telan. The winged human put his hands together and rested his chin on top of them, smiling coyly at the tactician. He had only come to Volstead to see what the shops had on sale, but noticed the group of wingless people asking around about a person named Morgan and inquired about her. He didn't know where she was, but next thing he knew, he was walking beside Hale's group giving them a tour of the city he wasn't even from.

"You know, I've never seen a Groundhog so infatuated with us before. We don't see too many of your kind around here, you know. A tad jealous, perhaps?" Telan spoke before Hale had a chance to say something, flitting his wings.

"I don't remember much about my childhood, but the moment I saw you all… it came back to me. I had wanted to fly like the birds because the Plegians were hunting me and my mother. I'd wanted to get away and live a normal life. I never quite got that, but what I _did_ receive was a gift that I couldn't live without: my family and friends. It's partially the fact that one of my lost memories is back with me and partially what you said. It would be nice to fly without a pegasus."

"Well, we still ride those around here, you know. By the way, we aren't born knowing how to fly. As your time-traveling son has reminded me, we are like birds in that we must learn how to do it. It is a rite of passage for us; first we learn to crawl, then to walk, then to run, and finally, to fly." Morgan looked behind her and saw both Miriel and Laurent scribbling notes about Kalsoba as Telan described it. She thought that perhaps they too would have wanted to stay here longer, but only to study this world that was so different from their own. She looked back at her father, happy that he had finally discovered a part of his life before waking up in that Ylissean field.

"As such, you'll see a lot of our children living near the Grounded Cities. But now let me ask _you _something, Hale: what's the deal with this Morgan person you came all the way out here to see?"

"We believe her group has the knowledge we need to protect our own world. We were told her group of nomads, the Xenosouls, have made their camp here." More Groundhogs, Telan reasoned. They were always easy to point out if one was flying by the Grounded Cities, since the wingless folk couldn't easily travel around the Sky World without a pegasus or some other method of flight. If he had seen them out of the city's northern entrance, he would've remembered.

"And they're somewhere near Volstead? Kalsoba is a large place, you know. How do you know they haven't made their way to another city?"

"That's why we're asking around. Are the Grounded Cities all connected to each other? Could we travel between them without a flight aid?" Morgan asked. A single person might be able to get around a place like this without too much trouble, but an entire group of nomads that couldn't fly would have a ton of logistical difficulties to work out before moving around a place like Kalsoba.

"Huh, that's a thought. No, actually – the Grounded Cities are separated from each other. You'd have to use the flightways in order to travel between them. In most cases, each of us was born and raised in one of them. When we get old enough to live on our own, we fly into the Heights and find a place to live up there. Later on in our lives, when we get married and settle down to have children, we pick one of the Grounded Cities to make another home for the kids. A lot of us go back to where we were raised, and so you have entire lineages linked to the regions surrounding Volstead, or Setaine, or Naoberg. Bookworms! You're eating this stuff up, aren't you?" He was referring to Miriel and Laurent, the latter of which was writing down what he had just said.

"We appreciate your summations, Telan. Perhaps you may be able to give us a more detailed explanation when we have found the person we seek." Miriel said to the winged human, who nodded and smiled at her before turning back to Hale.

"You all are making me feel important. I just came down here to see if the shops had anything on sale. Now I feel like I'm getting paid thousands of gold an hour to explain to a bunch of big-wing rich people how different the common folk are from them without offending their snooty sensibilities."

"Do you have Risen here?" Henry asked. Tharja hadn't gotten the opportunity to utilize the Reeking Box, and Henry didn't want to waste one if no Risen would show up for him to blow apart.

"Not sure what you mean. What are those?"

"Undead warriors brimming with the power of shadow. They tend to attack people, and can even be controlled by those with the proper mastery over dark magic." Tharja explained, wondering in the back of her mind what kind of wings Hale would like to have. Telan's looked flashy and gaudy and horribly unappealing in her opinion, but if Hale wanted wings like that, she would rip them off of Telan and fuse them to Hale's back if that's what she needed to do.

"Ah. Yeah, I've heard of those. They don't show up often where I live. Supposedly, they're not very smart – why else would they attack settlements all the way in the Heights when the Grounded Cities have all the children and pregnant women?" At that moment, a pregnant woman with black bat wings crossed in front of the group, being escorted by her blue-winged husband and a jumpy little boy attempting to hover with his navy-blue bat wings. She gave Telan an annoyed look and flapped her wings once to accent it, which made his wings flit in response as he shrugged.

"Hey, those things are stupid as rocks. There's never been a single death from those… Risen, right? That's what you called them?" He addressed Henry as the family passed by.

"Yep! We've got a bunch of boxes full of stuff that'll have them coming like a bunch of starving dogs once they're opened! Also, question: is your blood red?" Telan knew a dark mage back where he lived. The guy hardly smiled and didn't talk to too many people. His biggest contribution to his town was that he kept the bandits away. He scared them. _This guy _was disturbing in a different way – unlike the dark mage he knew that would sling curses at you while slicing you to bits with magic attack, _this one_ looked capable of doing the exact same thing except laughing like a maniac instead of cursing. No, the actual cursing looked to be the province of the girl next to him, who seemed far more like the typical dark mage he knew and heard about.

"Yeah. Don't see why it wouldn't be, unless yours isn't. Never seen a Groundhog bleed before, so I don't actually know for sure."

"Trust us, it's red. So, your Risen aren't coming in from other realms, then. They can fly, just like you. Who could be generating them? I think the understanding in our world is that Grima, the evil Fell Dragon, made them from corpses with his magic. Why would they be showing up in a realm where he didn't exist?" Hale asked, and Tharja elected to answer.

"Based on Henry's constant chatterings about tainted blood and cursed tomes, I believe whatever Grima did to make Risen was not unique to him. The right kind of magic can take hold of corpses buried in the ground and make them into Risen. We think it's something that comes about from improperly used dark magic." Laurent decided to write that down as well, even though it had nothing to do with Kalsoba specifically.

"Tainted blood! Mmm… delicious." Henry licked his lips at the thought, and suddenly realized where the original impetus for that idea came from, looking at the tactician's daughter. Hale may have been cleansed of Grima's influence, but Morgan's blood was still halfway darkened. He had remembered the tacticians' blood being possessed of a certain stench to it and had his hunch confirmed after learning of Hale's heritage as Grima's vessel.

"Yeah, I don't think so. Well, was there anything else you wanted me to tell you about? This is the western edge of the city." Telan stood at the front of the group, taking flight to point out that they were at the top of a hill.

"Nothing really remarkable down this way, other than some small villages where families and farmers live. I think it's necessary to add that we still rely on the Grounded Cities for food, since we obviously can't grow stuff in the sky. If you were to visit the Heights, you could see that we've got a lot more flying edible animals than your world probably has. Hunting in the sky's a different deal than hunting on land, that's for sure. That reminds me – I need to send a letter to one of my friends to see if we can go hunting some time. Anyways. Hale. Where do you want to go?" He flew towards the back of the group, looking behind him at the rest of Volstead. In his opinion, there wasn't much else to talk about – if Hale really wanted to get a taste of the Kalsoban element, he ought to go to a city in the Heights.

"Is there an inn close by?"

"Yeah, right around the corner. Come on, I'll show you." They followed him back into the city, Hale hoping that they could find Morgan before she decided to take her group someplace else. He'd definitely have to remember how to get here, though – Kalsoba was starting to become his perfect vacation spot.

* * *

**A/N: Whew. It may not look like it, but I've written nearly 10,000 words this week. I'm currently working on an original novel as part of Camp NaNoWriMo (that's short for National Novel Writing Month), a summer writing campaign from where I write 50,000 words on a single story over the month of July. It's a challenge to keep up with that **_**and **_**put out updates for you all, so I apologize for the (hours-)late update. I just came back from my cousin's wedding which I had to travel four hours to and from for, as well. **

**Still going to hold myself to the weekly standard, even with the 12,500 words per week requirement that summer NaNo is putting on me. As always, if you have a comment on how this story is going, feel free to let me know in a review. **


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